JAKARTA - Minister of Public Works (PU) Dody Hanggodo admitted that the construction of irrigation networks in various regions was slow. Of the three processes, only stage 1 has a fairly fast progress with an achievement of 89 percent. Meanwhile, phase II and stage III progress only reached 23 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.
According to Dody, one of the causes of the slow progress of irrigation development is because a lot of data provided by the regions is not in accordance with conditions in the field.
Whereas in the first phase of development, the Ministry of Public Works should only be tasked with renovating irrigation infrastructure that had previously been built by local governments.
"That's why I said earlier, the data was there, but it was there and gone. We were often given data like that, but then when we checked in the field, it turned out to be overlapping. It turned out that the irrigation was no longer there, moving, that's why," said Dody, quoted on Saturday, November 1.
As a result of the inaccuracy of the data, the Ministry of Public Works must re-collect existing irrigation channels. Re-data collection is important as provision in continuing irrigation development in the following years.
"Today we are renovating regional irrigation, but while collecting data. We have recently prepared data for 2026 and so on," he said.
With the re-data collection and completion of the administrative process between the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas, according to Dody, irrigation development in various remote areas can be accelerated starting in 2026.
Thus, the realization of phase II and phase III irrigation development stipulated in Presidential Instruction (Inpres) Number 2 of 2025 concerning the Acceleration of Development, Improvement, Rehabilitation and Operations and Maintenance of the Irrigation Network to Support Food Swasembada can be accelerated.
As for phase I, the Ministry of Public Works targets renovations of an irrigation network of 280,000 hectares. Then, in phase II, it is hoped that the 225,000 hectares of the irrigation network can be built and equipped with a groundwater irrigation network through the construction of pumps above 100 meters.
At least, from this groundwater irrigation network, the need for around 8,200 hectares of land can be sufficient.
"We are worried that in some areas during the rainy season like today, right, some areas remain dry like NTT, Gunung Kidul, we are multiplying the groundwater irrigation network. In this 2025 stage we have built around 261 units, we are drilling deeply. So, we make sure the water flows into the rice fields from the drill points not from the surface water, but deeply," he said.
Meanwhile, in stage III, the Ministry of Public Works will still rehabilitate 146,000 hectares of existing irrigation networks and also build 832 units of groundwater irrigation networks. At least, in 2026, the Ministry of Public Works will build 750,000 hectares of irrigation networks.
"So, irrigation plus a groundwater irrigation network. Don't forget that we always focus on community-based infrastructure, P3-TGAI (Program for the Acceleration of Irrigation Water Administration Improvement)," explained Dody.
"Because the direction from the President is that the lowest community, especially farmers and others, cannot be just spectators. He must be one of the parties working on all projects, feeling the development cake itself," he concluded.
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