The Jakarta Globe, December 12, 2013.
Jakarta officially commenced the long-overdue project to dredge the city’s rivers and waterways to prevent flooding.
The project, known as the Jakarta Emergency Dredging Initiative (JEDI) was approved in 2009 but the actual dredging was delayed for five years.
“It should have been started in 2009 but we kept on stalling, so it has to be started immediately. We have been waiting for five years and the plan needs to be executed now,” Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo said during the launch of the project at Melati reservoir, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday.
The city administrative initially planned to complete the work within five years, but after the long wait it decided to accelerate the project, funded by the World Bank.
“I actually requested the JEDI project to be finished within one year but the World Bank said it was not possible and they needed two years to complete the dredging,’ he said.
Joko said the city budget was enough to cover the Rp 1.2 billion ($100,000) needed for the project, but the agreement with the World Bank could not be canceled.
“The plan had been made a long time ago so I decided to just go ahead with it because I don’t want to wait any longer,’ Joko said.
Manggas Rudi Siahaan, the head of the city’s public works office, said the dredging was expected to minimize the impact of flooding in the capital.
“We hope to normalize the capacity of the rivers and reservoirs. This dredging will be done according to international standards,” Manggas said.
He previously said city authorities had earmarked Rp 2 billion for the dredging of the Tomang reservoir in West Jakarta in order to curb severe flooding that usually affects the area during the rainy season.
He added that work on the project kicked off on Wednesday last week and was expected to be completed about a month.
The administration is also in the process of dredging two other major reservoirs in North Jakarta.
The city has selected a tender of Rp 20 billion for the dredging of the silted-up Pluit reservoir meant to recover lost capacity of the vital storm-water catchment area.
Manggas said the depth of the reservoir would be increased from the current 3 meters to its original 5 meters.
A total of 200,000 cubic meters of sediment and trash would be dredged from the west bank, he said.
Jakarta was severely affected by a major flood in January this year that left 12 people dead and forced more than 33,000 from their homes. The floods were the worst to hit the capital since 2007, when about 50 people were killed and more than 300,000 displaced.
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do 12 dec 2013 - 20:38
