Citarum Embankment Broken Down, Jokowi: Must Be Fixed In 2 Days
JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) reviewed the flood disaster in Pebayuran, Bekasi, West Java which was caused by the breakdown of the Citarum embankment. After reviewing, Jokowi asked his staff to repair the embankment in two days.
The former governor of DKI Jakarta then explained that at least there was a point of the embankment that was broken on Saturday night, February 20, when heavy rain hit. So, he wants the embankment to be repaired immediately.
"Earlier I gave a maximum target of two more days to complete the embankment so that everything would function normally", said Jokowi in a press conference broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube channel, Wednesday, February 24.
Furthermore, he also said there were also a number of affected housing areas and he asked his staff to immediately take care of this, including the people living around the embankment.
"There were 30 houses and will be repaired as soon as possible", he said.
During the visit, Jokowi was accompanied by Social Minister Tri Rismaharini and Minister of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Basuki Hadimuljono and other parties.
As previously reported, at least 13 houses were damaged by the flood due to the breakdown of the Citarum River embankment in Sumberurip Village, Pebayuran District, Bekasi Regency, West Java.
Bekasi Regent Eka Supria Atmaja said that dozens of houses suffered moderate, severe, collapsed damage so that they could not be occupied again, even five of them were known to have been swept away by the flood.
His party has now started to collect data on residents' houses affected by the flood, especially in locations where the water conditions have started to recede.
The Bekasi Regency Government has allocated a budget for repairing the houses of residents affected by the floods, however, the technical assistance will later be given through the village head according to the category of house damage.
In addition, the local government has also carried out mapping for handling the impact of floods by improving river flow areas such as repairing floodgates, embankments, river normalization, to infrastructure damaged by floods.