Govt has no money to repair waterways

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post/Tangerang

Farmers in Tangerang fear bad harvests this year as the regency administration has failed to repair many damaged irrigation canals.

"We only have Rp 500 million (US$56,179) available from the budget to dredge the sediment in the canals, but the total repair work will cost an estimated Rp 5 billion," head of the regency agriculture agency, Nana Mulyana, said on Thursday.

There are many leaks in parts along the 404 kilometers of irrigation canals that are meant to provide water for tens of thousands of hectares of rice fields.

Usman Gumanti, head of the agency's Water Usage Management division explained that the canals had never been dredged since they were built in 1970.

"During the wet season, water will overflow the canals and flood some rice fields, but in the dry season like now, no water flows out because the sediment has built up to a point where it is now blocking the flow in some areas," he said.

Nana Mulyana said that another 9,000 hectares of rice fields, ironically in the vicinity of the Cisadane and Cidurian rivers, would also have failed harvests due to a lack of water.

"Both rivers feed water into the irrigation canals ... The water volume, however, has been drastically reduced since April, when the dry season started," he explained.

The affected districts are Kronjo, Kemiri, Mauk, Rajeg, Pakuhaji, Teluk Naga and Kosambi.

Leaks occurring at nine out of ten sluice gates at the Pasar Baru Dam have also affected water supply to 9,082 hectares of rice fields in Pasar Kemis and Sukadiri districts.

Tangerang regency has a total of 40,000 hectares of rice fields. Over 23,000 hectares of the rice fields get their water exclusively from the irrigation canals, nearly 3,500 hectares partly depend on the irrigation system and 554 hectares use simple irrigation systems, while the rest depend entirely on rain.