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Jokowi calls for speedier progress in Jakarta's flood control projects
The President is pushing the Jakarta administration and the public works ministry to accelerate the projects following the New Year's Day flooding in the capital.
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Construction workers install sheet piles on Oct. 17, 2018 along 1,600 meters of the Grogol River in Palmerah, West Jakarta as part of a project to normalize the river. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has made it clear that infrastructure projects on the Ciliwung River must continue as part of the efforts to mitigate flooding in Jakarta.
Jokowi stressed his point in a limited meeting on Jan. 8 with the leaders of those regions affected by the massive New Year's flooding that hit Greater Jakarta and Lebak, Banten. Those in attendance were Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, Banten Governor Wahidin Halim, West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, Lebak Regent Iti Octavia Jayabaya and Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi.
The President also ordered the Public Works and Housing (PUPR) Ministry and the Jakarta administration to accelerate the Ciliwung River normalization project and building an underground water tunnel connecting the river in Bidara Cina, East Jakarta, with the East Flood Canal (KBT).
At the meeting, Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono and Anies were involved in a spat over whether the Ciliwung project should involve normalization or naturalization, with Anies arguing for the latter.
Anies brushed off the spat afterwards, saying that both measures would be applied.
“We have established intensive communication with the [ministry]. We support all of the ministry's programs, which [river section] should be normalized and which should be naturalized. [The ministry] will help,” he said on Jan. 9.
Anies continued that he and Basuki had agreed that the two methods both involved widening river, and that the Jakarta administration would thus procure more land this year.
