DPRD HSS Asks Local Governments To Accelerate Dredging Of The Old Mandit River

Heavy equipment normalizes the flow of the New Mandit River and Rintisan River in Hulu Sungai Selatan (HSS) Regency, South Kalimantan some time ago. (ANTARA/Fathurrahman)

SOUTH Kalimantan - Member of the Regional House of Representatives of Hulu Sungai Selatan Regency (HSS), South Kalimantan Mukhlis Ridani asked the local district government (Pemkab) to coordinate to accelerate the dredging of the Old Mandit River in Simpur District. According to him, coordination needs to be carried out with the Kalimantan River Basin Center, so that it can accelerate the dredging of the Old Mandit River to control the overflow of water and support community agriculture. "We hope that with a wide connection from the acting (Pj) Regent of HSS Hermansyah, the River Hall can accelerate the dredging of the Old Mandit River," he said in Kandangan, HSS Regency, Antara, Sunday, January 28. Mukhlis said that his party had conveyed this when attending the deliberation of the development plan (Musrenbang) for the 2025i regional development work plan (RKPD) at the Simpur District Level on Thursday (25/1). He explained that the dredging of the Old Mandit River is very important to do in an effort to anticipate overflowing water so as not to hinder agriculture and plantations belonging to residents. “ Residents have also submitted a grant, if this Old Mandit River dredging is carried out, ” said the member of Commission III of the HSS Regency DPRD. River dredging as part of water control in Simpur District will also have a positive impact so that there are no more obstacles in carrying out plantations, especially in anticipation of overflowing water. "Hopefully with this water control, the plantations carried out by our residents can be carried out without being affected by weather factors again," he concluded. Previously, the Head of the Public Works and Spatial Planning Office of Hulu Sungai Selatan Regency, South Kalimantan, Teddy Soetedjo had proposed the normalization of the Old Mandate River to the Kalimantan 3 River Basin Center, in order to prevent and reduce flooding. Teddy said the HSS Regency Government had completed three supporting documents for the proposed normalization of the Old Mandit River requested by the Kalimantan 3 River Basin Center. "The documents requested from us include RAB documents, AMDAL documents and land grants," said Teddy. Teddy explained, the Fee Budget Draft (RAB) document has been completed in 2020, as well as for the AMDAL document which has also been completed in 2022. Furthermore, to complete the third document related to land grants with sizes of four to five meters, throughout 20 it is still in the process of signing with land owners.

The land grant process was carried out by targeting land owners in three sub-districts, namely Kandangan, Simpur and Kalumpang sub-districts. "The latest information we received from the river hall, normalization has entered the proposal for 2024, hopefully in the as soon as possible we can complete the land grant process," said Teddy.