Jakarta Turns to Dutch Experts for Sea Dike Plan

Jakarta Globe, Dofa Fasila, September 14, 2011

The Jakarta administration is receiving help from the Rotterdam authorities in preparing a master plan for a massive sea dike that will help the capital deal with its perennial flood problems.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, speaking after receiving the Dutch technical assistance team, said preparations for the plan would take about nine months.

Completing the plan, he added, would likely take two years, and implementing it would take at least a decade.

“We hope this project can proceed, and not be delayed, because it will really determine the future of Jakarta,” Fauzi said.

The Indonesian team spearheading the endeavor will also involve the Public Works Ministry and the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), Fauzi said.

The same team completed a study, the Jakarta Coastal Defense Strategy, in May. The study foresees the need for the giant sea wall to be built off the coast of Jakarta by 2025.

The massive sea wall, besides helping Jakarta cope with flooding, will also fortify the city’s water supplies, long a problem in the capital, Fauzi said.

“The emphasis in the building of this giant sea wall as part of the Jakarta Coastal Sea Defense project is not only to safeguard the northern coastline of Jakarta but also to make use of this project in an integrated manner for the future benefit of the city,” Fauzi said.

The giant sea wall, he said, will also serve as a reservoir to collect water from several rivers running through Jakarta.

“It is planned that water from 13 rivers in Jakarta ... will in the future not just be left to flow into the ocean. We will collect the water within the giant sea wall so that it can become a primary source of water for the city. This is in the long term,” Fauzi said.

To deal with a possible water shortage while the wall is being planned and built, Fauzi said city authorities would accelerate a pipeline plan to link Jakarta with the Jatiluhur reservoir in Purwakarta, West Java, and plan a desalination plant. The governor has previously referred to the plant a decades-long project.

The pipe network from Jatiluhur, the desalination plant and the reservoir formed by the giant sea wall would buttress the city against floods and protect it from water shortages, Fauzi said.

The giant wall has become increasingly urgent as land subsidence in Jakarta has worsening while sea levels have risen, he added.

Officials in Rotterdam, home to one of the world’s largest ports, have substantial experience in protective construction. Sitting below sea level, the city is built mostly behind dikes.

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Dutch to help build dikes in Indonesia