Jakarta to build huge dike to overcome flooding problem

Antara 3 Oct 11;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Jakarta city administration plans to build a huge dike to overcome flood problem that the city always faces every year, a city administration official said here on Monday.

Achmad Harjadi, the city administration`s deputy for environment and spatial management, said the feasibility study on the Jakarta Coastal Defense Strategy (JCDS) to overcome floods that includes the dike project had already been finished.

He said it takes eight months to finish the study with assistance from the Dutch government that has allocated four million euro worth of grant for it.

The complete master plan is now being made and the Dutch government has also pledged to help the reconstruction, he said.

He said members of the JCDS team who had been assigned to conduct the feasibility study were from the consortium of Dutch consultants, experts from the public works ministry and the Bandung Institute of Technology.

Floods have always happened in the city due to land subsidence and the hike in sea water level.

A number of options have been offered to overcome the problem such as strengthening and raising the dike at coast line locations, and extending "blue space" as a retention pond which has now become part of the plan.

The second option is integrating the sea dike with development of reclaimed areas while retaining the main river flows such as from Cengkareng Drain and West and East Flood Control Canals to the sea.

The third option meanwhile is building a dam to receive all water that comes from all rivers passing through the city for pumping out into the sea.

He said the city administration tends to choose the third option with an addition of Option 1 and 2 modifications.

He said the flood control dike would be designed also for a toll road. The multi-purpose dike will also function as a toll road or a railway to help overcome traffic problems in the city, he added.

The budget for the development of the dam in North Jakarta could reach Rp50 trillion which would be taken from the regional and national budgets and involvement of private parties in a public-private partnership scheme.(*)

Editor: Heru