T

o deal with recurrent flooding due to a local high tide, known as the rob, the Semarang administration in Central Java is cooperating with Dutch company Hoogheemraadschap van Schieland en de Krimpenerwaard (HHSK) to build a polder in the Banger River.

Semarang Mayor Hendrar Prihadi said the polder, a flood-control system using dikes, would be built in East Semarang district. The Rp 84 billion (US$6.9 million) project is expected to be finished by September 2014, after having been in abeyance since 2001.

The polder will cover a plot of 530 hectares in 10 subdistricts in East Semarang. There will be five pump houses, four for routine operations with the extra one as backup.

Each pump will have a capacity of 1.5 cubic meters of water per second. The pumps are expected to be able to lower the level of the river to 2 meters below its current level.

Roy Kraft Van Ermel of HHSK said his country had 850 years of experience in managing water. The polder system in the Banger River, he said, would be the first in Southeast Asia and was expected to be the right solution for Semarang.

He said that around 80,000 residents would be protected from flooding once the project was finished. Van Ermel said that the superiority of a polder system was in its management, which required active participation by local people, the business sector and the government.

For local people, he said, the polder was advantageous because the price of property in the region would increase and residents would no longer need to elevate their houses every year.

The polder would also reduce costs for businesses, while for the government the polder would reduce infrastructure expenses in the region, Van Ermel said, adding that certain fees would be required from the three stakeholders, partly to create a sense of belonging among them.

Low-income families, Van Ermel said, would be required to pay Rp 3,000 per month toward the polder maintenance, while middle-income families would pay Rp 4,500. Upper-income families would be expected to pay Rp 7,500 per month.

Medium-sized businesses will be required to pay Rp 30,000 per month, larger enterprises will pay Rp 60,000 and the city administration is expected to pay Rp 27.5 million per month.

'€œIn that way, the management expenses of Rp 138.2 million per month or Rp 1.7 billion per year will be easier to afford,'€ he said.