TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has been urged to immediately acquire the land to normalize Ciliwung. Director of River and Coast of the Directorate General of Water Resources of the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, Jarot Widyoko, said the normalization process has stalled since three years ago, as there has been no land acquisition done by the Jakarta Government.

“In 2017 we returned 40 billion (Rupiah) because there was no river border control," Jarot said while reviewing the flooding at the Kemayoran Underpass, Central Jakarta, on Sunday, February 2, 2020.

Jarot went on to say that the central government had the responsibility to normalize Ciliwung. However, land acquisition which is the authority of the Jakarta Government has not been realized, hampering normalization.

Anies Baswedan is known to opt for naturalization rather than normalization. Naturalization emphasizes the principle of a river that is left natural without using concrete, geared for water to seep into the soil rather than being moved into the sea.

However, the floods that hit Jakarta in early January 2020 resulted in President Joko Widodo demanding Anies to immediately commence normalization. "I also ask that the Ciliwung River towards the East Flood Canal (BKT) can be completed this year," Jokowi said when opening a coordination meeting on flooding on Wednesday, January 8, 2020.

Jarot Widyoko stated that the government needs to more than just normalize the river to prevent water overflow. The government must also make parapets and river cliffs. "That is our focus," he said.

According to Jarot, to this day, the government still stores concrete sheet piles planned to be used in the construction of the Ciliwung wall. However, with land acquisition failing since 2017, the sheet pile is still yet to be used.

"There are a lot of sheet piles. We were ready, but it turned out the river border control didn't turn out smoothly."

He explained that the government had just normalized 16 kilometers of the 33 kilometer long Ciliwung River in the capital. "The parts that has been put in order, we will go in to continue normalization," he said.

Previously, Head of the Water Resources Office, Juaini Yusuf claimed that he had allocated Rp 600 billion to free land for rivers and reservoirs this year.

Juaini said that after the land was acquired, the Ministry of Public Works Housing (PUPR) could resume normalization of Ciliwung, as the authority to normalize Ciliwung is the responsibility of the central government. "We only free up the land," he said.

IMAM HAMDI | DIO SUHENDA (INTERN TRANSLATOR)