Authority starts dredging the Pluit reservoir to avoid flood
JAKARTA (JP): The Pluit Environmental Management Board (BPLP), a city-owned company, has begun dredging the Pluit reservoir in West Jakarta in order to prevent the recurrence of seasonal floods plaguing nearby residential areas.
"To optimize the capacity of the reservoir we are dredging up about 700,000 cubic meters of mud lying at the bottom of the reservoir," said Darrundono, the head of the BPLP, yesterday.
He explained that by taking out the excess mud, the reservoir's intake will thus increase and thereby reduce the amount of water flooding the streets and residential areas near the reservoir during the rainy season.
Darrundono did not say when the dredging began, nor did he mention when it is expected to be completed.
Darrundono would not reveal the overall estimated cost but said the first phase of the dredging project would absorb some Rp 13 billion (US$6 million), adding that the funds come from a World Bank aid program.
According to Darrundono the dredging of the reservoir coincides with another BPLP project of reclaiming a 40-hectare area which will be used to make way for the development of a container terminal in Kamal Muara, also in West Jakarta.
The terminal is designed to meet the demands of the business community, with storage for export and import containers in the northwest region of the city.
No guarantee
Though at present the planned facility still lacks a developer, BPLP intends to build and lease the 45 hectare facility in Kamal Muara under a 20 year build-operate-transfer (BOT) system.
Clearly concerned about the environmental impact of the new facility, the World Bank placed a strong condition forbidding the removal of earth from residential areas in the city in order to fill the storage grounds.
"This is like a blessing, we can dredge the mud from the reservoir which is just enough to fill the storage location and after that all we have to do is just to put some soil on top," Darrundono said enthusiastically.
However neither Darrundono nor his staff could guarantee that, by dredging the mud, the Pluit area would be free from future floods.
The head of BPLP's planning division, Nur Affandi, said that in anticipation of future floods the number of pumps used at the reservoir would also be increased.
Reliable sources, however, revealed that only four out of the eight pumps in the Pluit reservoir were in operation last season.
Darrundono also said yesterday that BPLP is undertaking a project to reclaim 200 hectares of land in the Pluit shoreline.
The reclamation project, scheduled to be completed by the year 2000, is estimated to cost about Rp 1 trillion. (mds)