Jokowi Puji Heru Budi Continues Development Of Ciliwung Sodetan, PSI: Anies Baswedan Age No Strong Intention

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo was shocked and seemed to be the Acting Governor of DKI Jakarta Heru Budi Hartono able to continue the construction of the Sodetan Ciliwung which had stalled for years.

Responding to this, Secretary of the PSI faction of the DKI Jakarta DPRD William Aditya Sarana views this condition as showing that Heru has the intention to tackle the Jakarta floods. This is different from Anies Baswedan when he was Governor of DKI, according to William.

"The President's praise is proof that Heru Budi has strong intentions in resolving the flood problem in Jakarta. In the Anies Baswedan era there was no strong political intention to do that. As a result, he stalled for years," William told reporters, Wednesday, January 25.

From this condition, the member of Commission A of the DKI Jakarta DPRD said, of the trillions of rupiah the budget was issued, if there were no strong political intentions, everything would not have any impact.

"This is our common subject, also for DKI residents so that they are not wrong in choosing a leader," said William.

William also hopes that all stakeholders will participate in helping and facilitating the implementation of the construction of the Ciliwung Sodetan and a number of policies to solve the flood problem in Jakarta.

"All stakeholders should unite so that the process of building sodetan as well as other flood completion programs can be carried out quickly, and the impact can be directly felt by residents," he said.

Yesterday, President Jokowi reviewed the construction of the Ciliwung Sodetan on the side of the Kebon Nanas outlet, Jatinegara, East Jakarta.

Jokowi admitted that he was surprised that the construction of the Ciliwung Sodetan, which had stalled for 6 years, could be immediately continued by Heru. After Heru took office, the DKI Provincial Government immediately carried out land acquisition for a number of residential areas that became sodetan outlet areas.

"The Ciliwung detainee, who stopped 6 years ago, has been cleared of land here for a month and a half, so the drilling can be started again and we hope that it will be completed in April, God willing," said Jokowi at the location.

Jokowi explained that the giant 1.3-kilometer culvert, when operating, could reduce the water discharge by 33 cubic meters per second in the Ciliwung River flow to be diverted to the East Flood Canal (BKT).

"Then on (standard) Alert 1 (the flow can reach) 63 cubic meters per second. It's very big. That's very much when it works, it will greatly reduce flooding in Jakarta," explained Jokowi.

Meanwhile, PUPR Minister Basuki Hadimuljono is grateful that Heru was able to continue various Jakarta flood control programs which had stalled.

The various steps taken to overcome the flood that Basuki meant were the normalization of rivers, the construction of sodetan, the construction of reservoirs, to the installation of pumps.

"Now, thank God, there is Mr. Heru, this (in order to overcome flooding in Jakarta) is starting to be carried out again. There must be a lot of reduction, not free floods, but definitely a lot less from upstream, middle, downstream," said Basuki.

"If it was consistently done from the start, it would have been reduced. The problem was that there was nothing in the six years, nothing was normalized, nothing was done by the drains," he continued.