PSI Criticizes Anies Baswedan For Abolishing River Normalization. It Has Made Its Promise 3 Years Unrealized

Illustration- Floods in DKI Jakarta (Photo: Dok VOI)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) faction criticized DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan for abolishing river normalization in the DKI Jakarta medium-term regional development plan (RPJMD).

Jakarta DPRD PSI faction member Justin Untayana regretted the attitude of Anies, who has served for 3 years, but has not been able to also acquire land for the normalization program.

"The problem is, Pak Anies has been serving as governor for more than 3 years, but the promise of the river naturalization and normalization campaign seems like nothing has been realized at all. If Pak Anies removes river normalization from the RPJMD document, then the residents of Jakarta will suffer losses due to the ongoing floods, ”Justin said in his statement, Wednesday, February 10.

In fact, according to Justin, this river widening program is very useful for flood control efforts. Moreover, a number of areas in Jakarta have been hit by floods due to high rainfall in recent days.

Then, Justin regretted Anies' attitude that did not explain the strong reasons for removing the river normalization program in the draft RPJMD changes.

"It should be remembered that one of the causes of flooding is the river overflowing because it is unable to accommodate water sent from upstream. Therefore, efforts need to be made to increase river capacity, both through normalization and naturalization, "he said.

As is known, the Governor of DKI Jakarta Anies Baswedan proposed changes to the regional medium-term development plan (RPJMD). One of these changes is to remove the river normalization program in Jakarta.

RPJMD is a development planning document that contains the vision, mission, and programs of the regional head promised since the term of office for a period of 5 years.

This document is usually used to assess the realization of campaign promises and evaluate the performance of the governor at the end of his term of office.

In the old RPJMD document on pages IX-79, there is a paragraph explaining the efforts made to reduce the impact of flood losses in Jakarta, by building reservoirs, normalizing and naturalizing rivers.

Meanwhile, in the draft revised RPJMD page IX-105, the river normalization program was removed. Thus, increasing river flow capacity is only carried out through the river naturalization program.