City only able to provide flood plan, not prevention
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A lack of funds to develop flood control facilities for the next five years has forced the city administration to prepare only an emergency plan to help flood victims in Jakarta, an official said.
The official said that the administration had allocated some Rp 45 billion to help flood victims next year. The funds will be used to establish public kitchens, temporary shelters, health centers, medicines and evacuation equipment such as rubber rafts.
"For next year, we can only prepare an emergency plan for flood victims as we have not been able to complete flood projects," head of the city planning agency (Bapeda) Ritola Sasmaya said on Monday.
According to Ritola, the Rp 45 billion was an emergency fund, not included within the city budget. It will be used by the city administration to resolve various social problems in the city.
The city administration was widely criticized over its poor handling of flooding problems and victims during the massive floods in January and February.
Ritola said that the development and improvement of flood control facilities, which need some Rp 17 trillion, included the dredging of the city's main rivers, repairing drainage systems and the construction of new projects like the Eastern Flood Canal, which would be completed within 10 years.
He added the city administration would contribute some Rp 1.7 trillion, or 10 percent of the total Rp 17 trillion, while the remainder would be met by the central government.
"The Rp 17 trillion will not only be used for flood projects in Jakarta but also for reforestation of environmentally damaged land in the upper areas of the Puncak, Bogor, West Java," he added.
Ritola said that land acquisition would be the most difficult problem for the Eastern Flood Canal Project, as most landowners demanded compensation higher than the taxed property prices (NJOP).
Citing an example, Ritola said that last year, the public works department could acquire only 40 percent of the land needed for its projects.
He said that investment for the Eastern Flood Canal was about Rp 3 trillion. He estimated that the flood canal would be completed within five years, not 10, as estimated by many officials before.
Meanwhile, head of the city public works agency IGKG Suena said that his office would focus on the development of the 23- kilometer East Flood Canal.
But he also added that the city administration was only able to obtain funds of Rp 22 billion for land clearance and physical development this year.
The funds, of course, would not be sufficient to meet city Governor Sutiyoso's ambition to complete the clearance of 250 hectares of land this year, which requires about Rp 1.3 trillion.
"We hope that the land clearance issue can be resolved immediately, otherwise we cannot make any progress," Suena told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
The East Flood Canal is an important element of the government's plan to build a semicircular canal in the northern part of the city that will carry water from the capital's 13 rivers to the Java Sea off North Jakarta. The other element is the 14-kilometer West Flood Canal, constructed in 1924 by the Dutch colonial government.