Banjarmasin Difficult To Fix 3 Rivers Due To Dense Residential Settlements

Head of the River Department of PUPR Banjarmasin Huzbulwathan / PHOTO VIA ANTARA

BANJARMASIN - The Public Works and Spatial Planning Office of Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan stated that it is difficult to fix the 3 rivers in the area, namely the Guring River, Kelayan River and Pekapuran River because all three are densely populated.

"Even though these three rivers are important to fix, because their functions are very vital," said Head of the River Service of the Banjarmasin City PUPR Huzbulwathani quoted by Antara, Monday, December 13.

According to him, these three rivers are very important because they are related to the smooth flow of other tributaries to flow into the big Martapura river.

"One of them is the Pemurus river, which is the support for Lucky Jaya and the surrounding Perona in the South Banjarmasin region, which fell into the Guring river, eventually flowing into the Kelayan and Pekapuran rivers," he said.

So, he said, these three interconnected rivers must be addressed, because they can attract other rivers to anticipate flooding in particular.

"We really want to fix these three rivers optimally, but the obstacle is the large number of densely populated settlements in almost the three rivers," he explained.

As has been implemented by the city government, said Thony, as he is known by his nickname, the normalization of the Guring river, which has been suspended for a long time, is still facing major problems for connectivity to the Kelayan and Pekapuran rivers.

"In 2019 we normalized the Guring river, technically dredging was difficult because many houses on the left and right banks had to be evicted, because many people did not agree, we also did some intimidation," he said.

He said the city government had to struggle to normalize the three rivers, especially the Kelayan and Pekapuran rivers, which had to free up many buildings.

"If we are forcibly dredged without release, we are afraid that many houses will collapse, that's the difficulty," said Thony.

According to him, the city government through Dis-PUPR, continues to normalize rivers, especially rivers anticipating flooding, such as the A Yani River, Veterans River and Zafri Zamzam River.

"This year we have dredged and normalized several rivers, including the three with a budget of IDR 8.7 billion," he said.