TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo or Jokowi said the government would continue to build dams for irrigation considering only 11 percent or some 780,000 hectares of rice fields were watered by existing dams.

“But after [constructions of] 58 more dams are completed, the figure will jump to 20 percent. The numbers are still small, so reservoir dams are still needed to provide water and irrigation to Our farmers` rice fields,” said Jokowi in an event entitled Vision of President broadcasted by private TV stations on Sunday evening, January 13.

According to Jokowi, there are 8 dams that have been completed, including Raknamo Dam and Rotiklot Dam in East Nusa Tenggara, and Tanju Dam and Mila Dam in West Nusa Tenggara.

The Central Statistic Agency (BPS) recorded the total amount of rice fields reached 7.1 million hectares, and that dropped when compared to that of in 2017 at 7.75 million hectares.

In addition, the government disbursed Village Funds since 2015 to develop supporting infrastructure in villages such as roads, markets, irrigation system, and water reservoir in a bid to develop Indonesia from the remote area.

In 2015, the government earmarked Rp20.7 trillion of village funds and increased it to Rp47 trillion in 2016, while in 2017 and 2018, the budget jumped to Rp60 trillion each.

Several infrastructures financed by the village funds under the government of President Jokowi included roads up to 158,000 kilometers, 6,900 markets, 1.02 million meters of bridges, 39,000 irrigations, and 3,000 water reservoirs.

ANTARA