TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesia Solidarity Party (PSI) argues that Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan failed to focus his efforts to overcome the capital city’s urban flooding.

“The flood mitigation program continues to go nowhere even though [Anies] has become the governor for 2.5 years,” said the Jakarta Legislative Council (DPRD Jakarta) member from the PSI faction, Justin Andrian on February 24, 2020.

According to Justin, Anies proposed a number of solutions such as the blue skies program but was met with heavy rainfall the day after that caused 36 sub-districts to be submerged under floods.

The legislator also mentioned that the floods can be attributed to the ‘river normalization’ program that is unable to be continued by the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry due to Jakarta’s administration that has yet acquired the needed land to commence the river normalization program.

“Three years were thrown down the bin,” said Justin.

The BMKG reports that the recent extreme rainfall is due to localized weather and is determined to be localized rain. The PSI member said; “Areas such as Menteng, Tebet, and Kuningan that are usually safe [from floods] were flooded. The governor does can no longer place blame on the rain in Bogor and cannot throw the problem on the Central Government.”

He also compared Anies Baswedan’s treatment on flood handling and upon hosting the upcoming Formula E race. The PSI politician said the governor is quicker to respond to prepare the international race costing the administration up to Rp1.2 trillion rather than increasing the regional budget for flood mitigation.

IMAM HAMDI