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Infrastructure road map crucial for remote regions
Inhabited by around 364 families, the villages of Air Liki and Air Liki Baru in Tabir Barat district, Merangin regency, Jambi, are difficult for the outside world to access
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nhabited by around 364 families, the villages of Air Liki and Air Liki Baru in Tabir Barat district, Merangin regency, Jambi, are difficult for the outside world to access.
To reach the areas, visitors have to take a one-and-a-half hour ride by motorboat from nearby Ngaol village and another hour ride by motorcycle from a small dock called Batu Gembung.
Ngaol itself can be reached by car in three hours from Bangko, the capital of Merangin, with bumpy and muddy roads along the way.
Four-wheeled vehicles cannot access Air Liki and Air Liki Baru because there are no roads there — only footpaths that are less than 1 meter wide.
On rainy days, the paths become too slippery, requiring pedestrians and motorcyclists to be careful, or else risk falling into a deep ravine.
Air Liki village head Pulpi Marlinton told The Jakarta Post recently that the pathways from Batu Gembung to Air Liki and neighboring Air Liki Baru were made by village ancestors some centuries ago and have seen little improvement since.
Starting in 2017, the village head had set aside a yearly budget of around Rp 100 million (US$6,723) — out of Rp 700 million in annual village funds disbursed by the central government — to harden the pathways using cement concrete. However, the effort has not been enough to cover the targeted 6 kilometers of footpaths.
As of now, 1 km has been hardened, with the remaining 5 km of paths still made up of rock and soil.
“We need the government’s special attention to develop road infrastructure here,” Pulpi said. The statement was echoed by Air Liki Baru village head Husni Syadri.
Pulpi and Husni said they had submitted a proposal to the local administration asking that road infrastructure be developed in their respective villages, but to no avail. The government, they said, did not even have plans to develop road infrastructure in the remote areas of Jambi.
Meanwhile, the Public Works and Housing Ministry announced last week that its budget in the draft 2019 state budget (RAPBN) had been increased by Rp 8.71 trillion to Rp 110.73 trillion from the initial Rp 102.01 trillion.
Some Rp 2.14 trillion in additional funds would be used for the development of, among other infrastructure, roads and bridges in East Nusa Tenggara and Papua.
National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) head of regional development Rudy Soeprihadi Prawiradinata said developing infrastructure in the country’s remote areas was the main focus of the government.
Roads in Air Liki and Air Liki Baru, he further said, could be constructed as long as the Jambi administration made a proposal. The central government would then set aside special allocation funds (DAK) for the development after making assessments.
“Local administrations should be able to identify the need for infrastructure development in their respective areas in order to make a proposal for the DAK,” Rudy told the Post recently.
According to the draft 2019 budget, the government set aside Rp 19.2 trillion in DAK for the development and revitalization of roads and bridges in villages. The amount is a 10.98 percent increase from this year’s Rp 17.3
trillion.
Responding to the situation, Center of Reform on Economics (CORE) research director Mohammad Faisal said the government should formulate a clear road map for infrastructure development in the country, so that all areas could be covered.
“Most importantly, the development should be sustainable over time,” Faisal said.
