The Central Government's Steps To Overcome Floods Waiting For Anies To Free Up Normalization Land

Flood illustration (Mery Handayani / VOI)

JAKARTA - This morning, Tuesday, February 25th, several areas of Jakarta were flooded. The central government, through the Center for the Ciliwung Cisadane River Basin (BBWSCC), has not been able to determine much to anticipate future floods.

This is because the Ciliwung river normalization project has not been running optimally because DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan is still constrained by land acquisition problems in Bidara Cina.

BBWSCC has done and will do some work on flood management in Jakarta and its surroundings. However, this step is not optimal, because this morning a number of areas in Jakarta are still inundated with water.

First, BBWSCC dredges Lake Kemayoran, Central Jakarta. Then, BBWSCC will build a water pump in Kali Sentiong which is planned to be carried out in March. Then, continue the construction of embankments on the coast of Jakarta with the target of 45 kilometers while only 9 kilometers.

The central government is still waiting for the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government to complete the acquisition of Bidara Cina land to be normalized immediately. This is because, of the total target length of 33 kilometers of the river, the normalization process that has been carried out is only 16 kilometers.

"We are still waiting for the determination of the location of the land to be released from the Governor of DKI. If it is resolved, the volume of 60 cubic meters of the Ciliwung flood can be channeled to the East Flood Canal," said BBWSCC Head Bambang Hidayah.

Some time ago, President Joko Widodo summoned DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to the State Palace. Jokowi asked Anies to speed up land acquisition so that he could use it for a normalization project.

The project of making sodetan on the Ciliwung River to the East Flood Canal was undertaken by the central government through the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing. Then, the DKI Provincial Government is in charge of taking care of land acquisition for the houses of affected residents.

However, the process of normalizing the Ciliwung and Pesanggrahan Rivers, which began in 2013, stalled in 2017 due to a disagreement over the value of compensation between residents and the government.

Anies answered, until the end of December 2019, the DKI Jakarta provincial government had started to determine the location for river normalization. Then, carry out other tasks related to procurement preparations, such as talking to residents whose land will be acquired.

This process is stated in the Decree of the Governor of DKI Number 1744 of 2019 concerning the Land Acquisition Preparation Team for the Construction of the Ciliwung River River in Bidara Cina Village, Jatinegara District, East Jakarta Administrative City.

"The discussions with residents have been completed. Now we are starting the appraisal phase," Anies said, Wednesday, January 8.

The appraisal process, in this case, is an assessment of the selling value of the land from the residents' houses to be acquired. For each house affected by land acquisition, a tax object sales value is calculated to determine the amount of the fee to be paid.

"After the appraisal, then the transaction for the land is carried out. With that, (land acquisition) is complete. Later, PUPR can immediately make payments, then start working on it," explained Anies.

According to the plan, there will be 118 land parcels that will be freed in the cultivation of the sodetan which functions to minimize the impact of flooding on residential areas along the Ciliwung River.