IKN Area Was Flooded, Deputy Authority Denies Caused By Development Projects

JAKARTA - The Nusantara State Capital (IKN) area in Sepaku Village, East Kalimantan (Kaltim) was flooded, on March 17, 2023.

Responding to this, Deputy Head of the IKN Authority, Dhony Rahajoe, emphasized that the disaster did not occur due to the construction of a new capital city.

He even said the flood had occurred since the 1970s.

"This flood was flooded latent, earlier there were also some members of the DPR who from Kalimantan said that from the 1970s it was flooded because it was a lowland," Dhony told reporters at the DPR RI Building, Jakarta, Monday, April 3.

The location of the flood is known not to have occurred in the Central Government Core Area (KIPP) of IKN, which is currently in the basic infrastructure development stage, but has occurred in Pemaluan Village, Sepaku Village, which is an existing area and has developed.

Dhony emphasized that his party had designed related how to reduce risks and mitigate water discharge so that floods would not occur again in the new capital city area.

"This consultant and consultant has been appointed to reorganize how the water management is there," he said.

Nevertheless, Dhony did not deny any obstacles in flood management in the new capital city because he was in direct contact with the people of the Balik Tribe. Currently, the middle way is being sought so that no party feels disadvantaged.

"He said (The Balik Tribe) wanted to be evicted and others, that's actually not the story, because this is to organize the lowlands so that this flood does not become a risk. Second, it seems as if it was caused by the development of IKN, even though (it has happened) since 70 and we want to fix it so that there are no disaster problems," he said.

Furthermore, Dhony emphasized that this would not interfere with the development in IKN. This is because currently the Minister of Environment and Forestry has issued a decision to release a forest area of 36,150.03 hectares (Ha) which will be sufficient to be built for the next few years.

Moreover, in the first phase, the government has only focused on building KIPP until 2024, which covers only 6,671 Ha from the total area of the new capital city of 256,142 Ha.

"We want to focus on building an ecosystem, how people who move and migrants with existing residents can interact well," he concluded.