City to Accelerate Plans To Construct Sea Wall

Jakarta Globe, Lenny Tristia Tambun, December 5, 2013

Jakarta’s flood defenses need urgent improvement. Twenty people were
killed by flooding this year. (JG Photo)

The Jakarta administration vowed on Wednesday to ramp up the construction of a giant sea wall to prevent massive flooding in North Jakarta.

Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said the sea wall was expected to serve the dual purpose of protecting the north coast from tidal flooding and providing clean drinking water, through a desalination facility for residents.

“What was once expensive has now become more affordable. If the poor cannot afford the installation, the government will bear the costs on their behalf,” Basuki said of the plan to distribute the water from the desalination facility to local homes.

The giant sea wall will be funded by the city and central government, as well as the private sector.

Initial blueprints for the plan include a wall running 60 kilometers from Teluk Naga in Tangerang and ending at Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta.

Governor Joko Widodo said construction would begin in December and continue through 2014.

The plan also calls for the dredging of four million cubic meters of sand from the seabed to be used to reclaim 220 hectares of land in the form of five islands.

The project is primarily aimed at protecting the city from flooding. Jakarta saw its worst ever flooding at the beginning of the year, which left 20 people dead and more than 45,000 people displaced.

Earlier the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) said Jakarta needed investment in coastal ecological rehabilitation rather than an engineering folly destined to enable land grabs by private developers.

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