Has Not Completed Yet, The Jakarta Provincial Government Admits Mud Dredging Is Like Cutting Grass On A Highway

DKI Governor Anies Baswedan and Deputy Governor Riza Patria (Instagram @aniesbaswedan)

JAKARTA - Secretary of the DKI Jakarta Water Resources (SDA) Office, Dudi Gardesi, admitted that the Gerebek Lumpur program, namely dredging to collect rainwater to prevent flooding in Jakarta, has not been completed.

Dudi likens the dredging of rivers to cutting grass on highways. He said, when rivers or reservoirs are dredged, the mud will settle back.

"If we calculate when it is finished, this is a job like mowing grass on a highway. If we start cutting at kilometer 0 and finish at kilometer 60, the grass at kilometer 0 will be grown again. Dredging is like that in a cycle", said Dudi in a virtual discussion, Thursday, January 28th.

Thus, Dudi said that Gerebek Lumpur was an endless program and had to be done repeatedly in each location. "So there are those who are concentrated, some are indeed sporadic. So, we do everything", he said.

Furthermore, Dudi said that currently, the SDA Office was concentrating dredging locations in several places that previously did not hold rainwater too much, to function as flood control.

"Like in Pondok Ranggon, our area has been controlled for a long time but it does not function as flood control", said Dudi.