Choosing Sidewalk Development And Ignoring Flood Management

One of the pedestrian conditions in Jakarta (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The Jakarta Provincial Government's accelerated construction of sidewalks has drawn criticism from the DPRD. The budget of IDR 1.2 trillion proposed by the Jakarta Highways Agency in the 2020 temporary budget priority budget (KUA-PPAS) general policy was deemed too large by members of the council.

In a budget discussion meeting at Commission D DPRD DKI, Chairman of Commission D DPRD DKI Jakarta Ida Mah easily streamlined the budget ceiling for sidewalk construction. This is because the sidewalk budget takes up 35 percent of the total work plan of the Highways Office.

"This is a quite a lot of budget. Meanwhile, in the agency, the total budget is only 3 T. That means that if you combine it together, it means a lot," said Ida at the DPRD Jakarta Building, Monday, November 11.

Ida added that this budget must refer to the priority scale in planning. According to him, the Jakarta Provincial Government should prioritize repairing reservoirs and streams to store rainwater in order to minimize the potential for flooding.

"Those that can take several months should be encouraged there. The flow of water to the river must be resolved immediately. Traffic jams, floods, this must be resolved immediately. But if I look at the concentration in this budget, which is quite large, on the sidewalk, the same in the arrangement. RW, "said Ida.

Ida also regretted the low budget for flood management proposed by the DKI Water Resources Agency in the 2020 KUA-PPAS draft. Of the total budget for the SDA Office of Rp. 3.9 trillion, Rp1 trillion is allocated for flood management.

IDR1 trillion for flood management budget allocated for next year, IDR 600 billion of which will be allocated for land acquisition for reservoirs and rivers. This next year's land acquisition budget, he said, will be used to acquire land which was postponed last year due to budget efficiency.

Not to mention, the budget for land acquisition for reservoirs and rivers for flood control in 2019 has been cut by IDR 500 billion to IDR 350 billion. The cuts were made because of the Jakarta Provincial Government's budget deficit.

"This year [the budget] looks very small. It looks like the governor is not serious about dealing with floods," he said.

Anies denied

DKI Governor Anies Baswedan denied that the Jakarta Provincial Government has not prioritized the problem of flooding and has chosen to focus on building sidewalks.

"There is a budget that must be done this year [construction of sidewalks]. Some are done routinely [flood handling]. So in fact we do everything," said Anies.

He said that until now the Jakarta Provincial Government was still dredging the land of a number of reservoirs to accommodate a larger volume of water.

"If the name floods, in the end it is a matter of rainfall as well. So what we are doing is human effort," he said.

Moreover, according to Anies, the massive construction of sidewalks is expected to reduce the use of private vehicles and replace them with public transportation, bicycles, and even walking.