Monitoring Giant Sea Wall Jakarta, Aims, Up To Construction Controversy

Illustration of the construction of a sea wall in the Muara Baru area, North Jakarta. (Between-Galih Pradipta).

YOGYAKARTA - The DKI Jakarta Provincial Government plans to build a giant sea wall embankment. The existence of the Jakarta sea wall giant is one of the provincial government's efforts in tackling tidal flooding that often hit the area.

As is known, DKI Jakarta is indeed one of the areas prone to flooding. This condition got worse during the rainy season. Until now, many efforts have been made by the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government to overcome flooding such as river normalization, construction of infiltration wells, and so on. Then what about this giant sea wall?

Giant Sea Wall Jakarta is a project that is part of the development of a giant coast in Jakarta. The project includes wall construction built along the coast, water reservoir buildings, and land reclamation.

In an article entitled Construction of Giant Sea Wall: Are the Communities of Fisheries Beneficiary? uploaded in journal.ipb.ac.id, it is said that the construction of Giant Sea Wall in Jakarta Bay is a development program launched since 2010. Initially it was aimed at flood control, but then expanded to various sectors for regional economic development.

Although development goals are increasingly widespread, the development of Giant Sea Wall remains oriented towards flood control because some areas of DKI Jakarta are below sea level. The decline in sea levels itself occurred due to excessive groundwater extraction.

The government itself had conducted a feasibility study to build the embankment. The project was later known as the National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD) master plan or Giant Sea Wall Jakarta which was designed by the architecture of the Kuiper Compagnons firm from Rotterdam in collaboration with Indonesia and a consortium from Dutch companies (Witteveen+Bosa and Grontmij).

Quoted from north.jakarta.go.id, the construction of a giant embankment on the coast of Jakarta will be carried out in three stages at a cost of Rp400 to Rp500 trillion. The three stages are as follows.

The construction of Giant Sea Wall Jakarta is still shrouded in controversy, both among the public and among researchers.

The surrounding community, both direct and indirect, who were affected considered that the development would have an impact on their economy because the investment value they deposited in their business space was quite large.

Meanwhile, among researchers, this project is said to affect the environment because it has the potential to destroy coral reefs and the potential for water pollution behind sea walls.

Currently, the progress of the construction of Giant Sea Wall Jakarta in this NCICD has only reached 13 kllometers. Meanwhile, the construction of the embankment is prioritized to fly 46 kilometers long.

"There are those who are critical, initially 46 kilometers, the critical one has been implemented 13 kilometers, only 33 kilometers left," said Head of the Water Resources Service Yusmada Faizal at DKI Jakarta City Hall, not long ago.

In the future, the remaining 33 kilometers of the embankment will be continued, with details of 11 kilometers of work carried out by the DKI Provincial Government, 11 kilometers carried out by PT Pelindo II or KSOP Sunda Kelapa, and 11 kilometers others carried out by the Ministry of PUPR.

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