10 Cities / Regencies Prone To Floods, President Jokowi Gets A Message To The Acting Governor Of South Kalimantan: Green Kalimantan

President Joko Widodo (Photo: Indonesian Cabinet Secretariat)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) reminded the Acting Governor of South Kalimantan (Kalsel) Safrizal to carry out land rehabilitation by reforestation.

According to him, this needs to be done in order to prevent future flooding in 10 flood-prone districts / cities.

This warning was conveyed when he inaugurated the Tapin Dam in Tapin Regency, South Kalimantan on Thursday, February 18.

"I entrust Pak Gub (Governor) as well as all regents so that intervention in land rehabilitation is very important," Jokowi said as broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube account.

"Reforestation, replanting in lands, especially those related to watersheds, existing river basins, need to be carried out on a large scale if we don't want to be hit by floods in the future," the former governor of DKI Jakarta added.

In addition, Jokowi also believes that the Tapin Dam, which costs Rp. 986 billion to build, will also play an important role in flood control in addition to providing irrigation for 5,472 hectares of land. Moreover, this dam has a capacity of 56.7 million cubic meters of water.

This confidence also increased after hearing the Acting Governor of North Kalimantan Safrizal convey that since the existence of this dam, flooding in Tapin Regency has decreased very drastically.

"Only very small areas are affected by flooding, because Tapin has this dam," he said.

"This is the function of the dam. Apart from irrigating rice fields, in addition to generating electricity, it is also used for raw water, as well as controlling flooding," Jokowi concluded.