The government said the construction of the dam and lake embankment will be completed in March this year.

While workers were busy paving the inspection roads along the lake embankment, Narto, 54, stood at the opposite side of the dam watching the project, ongoing since September 2009. “This is the first time I have been back since the disaster,” he said on Wednesday.

Narno lives a few blocks away, and was spared when the dam broke. But he, just like most people in the area, saw it coming.

“Actually, one day before the disaster, residents in the area had been warned about the impending risk because some people had seen cracks in the dam. Also because we had heavy rainfalls the previous couple of days,” he said.

However, most of the residents did not heed the warning until that fateful Friday morning when the cracks gave way to the massive amount of water. As the dam broke, it released more than two million cubic meters of water, sweeping away victims living in the low-lying areas near the lake.

“So I could not put the blame on nature or the old construction of the dam,” he said. When the disaster struck, Narto could not do much to help the victims. The best he could do was provide temporary shelters for them and offer free food and drinks for the rescue workers.

For Nunung, 35, who recently opened a snack and drink stall in the area, her only hope was that the reconstructed dam would attract more people to visit the place again.

The Director of Rivers and Beaches Division at the Public Works Ministry, Pitoyo Subandrio, said the reconstruction of the collapsed dike of Situ Gintung would be finished soon and it was expected that water could flow into the dam in early March.

Operation of the newly reconstructed dam, however, would have to wait for a go-ahead from the Dam Security Commission at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

“We [the central government] have spent Rp 94 billion [US$10.37 million] on the reconstruction project so this dam would be under the supervision of the central government,” he said.

However, Pitoyo said that the central government would soon share its authority with local administrations — especially on lakes with capacities of less than 500,000 cubic meters of water.

The dam was constructed in 1933 on the Pesanggrahan river. Illegal reclamation by locals had reduced the size of the lake from 72 to 31 hectares.

Stilting has also reduced the lake’s width from 31 to 21.4 hectares. “We have widened the Situ Gintung lake from 21.4 to 26 hectares,” Pitoyo added.

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