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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