Cirata Dam

Cirata Dam

From Pelita

The Cirata Dam in West Java should be attracting a large number of foreign tourists given its beautiful vista. However, it appears that the dam, which was opened 10 years ago by the President, has not attracted many visitors. It has developed into a tourism site for "local" visitors from Cianjur, Bandung, and Purwakarta.

The dam is located near other tourist sites in the Cianjur region, like Puncak and Cipanas. The apparent isolation of Cirata Dam from other sites should not be an obstacle, especially if efforts are made to combine it with other tourist destinations in one package. Take for instance, the Pancimas package (Pangandaran, Cilacap and Banyumas), which encourages tourists to extend their trip to the region of Cilacap to visit Nusakambangan island and the Sea Village before traveling towards Banyumas to see Batu Raden.

Six thousand hectares of marine tourism spread over three districts -- Cianjur, Bandung and Purwakarta -- have much potential, provided that obstacles hindering supportive facilities can be removed. As far as we know, nobody has shown an interest in tourism development in the area. But if this could be changed, and the necessary facilities established, we are certain that this site would draw many more tourists because of the site's strategic location and proximity to Bandung, Cianjur, Bogor and Jakarta.

Maybe this project could be started under the coordination of the district administrations of Cianjur, Purwakarta and Bandung. We are quite certain that if the infrastructure was professionally managed, it would complement other tourist attractions in the vicinity.

MAMAN SUHERMAN

Cianjur, West Java