Karawang Regency Government Asks Central Government To Normalize Citarum River Tributaries

Karawang Regional Secretary (Sekda) Acep Jamhuri. (ANTARA/HO-Pemkab Karawang)

KARAWANG - The Regency Government (Pemkab) of Karawang, West Java, asked the central government to carry out normalization or dredging of the river in anticipation of preventing the overflow of a number of Citarum River tributaries.

"We have submitted recommendations regarding river normalization as an anticipatory measure to prevent the increase in water volume in a number of tributaries of the Citarum River," said Karawang Regional Secretary (Sekda) Acep Jamhuri, in Karawang, Antara, Friday, March 3.

The proposed recommendations were submitted as input for the planning of the Citarum Watershed Program (DAS) for the Indonesian Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Kemenko Marves) through the Citarum DAS Task Force.

He said normalization of the tributaries of the Citarum River needed to be carried out as part of efforts to deal with floods in a number of Karawang areas.

"Karawang is not only the Citarum and Cibeet Rivers. On the downstream side, our area also has several tributaries such as the Cikaranggelam River, the Ciwadas River, and the Ciherang River," he said.

During the rainy season, he continued, the high volume of water coming from other areas also contributes to causing flooding in a number of areas. According to him, the development of DAS in Karawang is increasing rapidly with the presence of industrial areas.

For this, his party has asked the regional party to create a retention pond scenario which previously also coordinated with the River Basin Center (BBWS).

"When talking about the Citarum Karawang Watershed with its Citarum Harum Program. We have strengthened the embankments, utilized the dry season, and educated the public not to throw garbage," he said.

Meanwhile, according to data from the local Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), the floods that occurred over the last four days in Karawang have submerged 79 villages spread across 24 sub-districts around Karawang.

As a result of the floods, tens of thousands of residents were forced to flee to refugee camps and safer places, and some fled to relatives' homes.

Apart from submerging settlements in rural and urban areas, the floods also submerged public facilities, places of worship, and educational facilities, and submerged thousands of hectares of rice fields.

The flood disaster that occurred in the last four days was due to high rainfall that was accompanied by the overflow of a number of rivers in the Karawang area.