City's river project lacks funds

JAKARTA (JP): The municipality does not have a budget sufficient to fund the city river normalization program, Abdul Kahfi, deputy governor for administrative affairs, said yesterday.

"I know that one of the reasons floods occur is because there are river banks that have not been cleared yet. Moreover, it is quite hard to force people living along the river banks to move out," he said.

Kahfi was responding to questions about the latest flooding, especially in Cipinang, East Jakarta, which is reportedly the worst in six years.

Many residents, still reeling from the weekend deluge, were struck again when heavy rains fell across the city on Monday. Many parts of the affected areas were still under water yesterday.

"The city has not stopped the river normalization program and despite the lack of funds we will do our best to run the projects," Kahfi said.

The city's public works agency was allocated Rp 54.77 billion for the 1997/1998 financial year, of which about Rp 30 billion has been used to recondition the city's waterways and in a sand quarrying project.

"The budget needed to support the normalization program is enormous. It is hard for the municipality to cope with this, especially during the monetary crisis," he added.

The latest data from the city's flood post showed that most parts of seven badly flooded subdistricts in East Jakarta were still inundated yesterday. Those affected were Cipinang Muara, Klender, Ciracas, Kramatjati, Kampung Rambutan, Cipinang Ranti and Pondok Bambu.

Water levels were still between 20 and 100 centimeters.

Some 2,200 houses were affected by the flood in Cipinang Muara subdistrict alone.

Similar conditions could be found in Bukit Duri subdistrict in South Jakarta, where water levels yesterday were between 40 to 50 centimeters.

Head of Cipinang Muara subdistrict Abdul Fatah said that some stretches of the Sunter river narrow from 10 meters down to 3 meters. The river current is very strong in these narrow reaches.

He explained that the cause of this was "mainly because the city has not yet finished the river normalization project in this part of Kali Sunter."

He said once the project is completed, the Cipinang area would be 'free' from floods, like in Pulogadung, an area in which the rivers have now been dredged, cleared and have an unimpeded flow of water. (edt)