Using BTT Funds To Prevent Postponed 5-Year Floods, Acting Governor Of DKI: No Need To Issue Emergency Status

Acting Governor of Jakarta Teguh Setyabudi reviewed tidal flooding/PHOTO: Diah Ayu-VOI

JAKARTA - Acting Governor of DKI Jakarta Teguh Setyabudi ensured that the DKI Provincial Government will again carry out weather modification operations in order to reduce the high rainfall in Jakarta during the change.

This is because the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has issued an early warning of extreme weather at the end of 2024 and early 2025. Jakarta is predicted to experience another large flood that usually hits once every five years.

The last five-year flood occurred in early 2020, where the rainfall at that time reached 377 mm per day or three times greater than the capacity of the drainage system in Jakarta.

"The head of BMKG has warned us that all extreme weather has occurred in various parts of Indonesia, including in DKI Jakarta. It is a special flood problem, this is what Jakarta is facing," said Teguh at DKI Jakarta City Hall, Monday, December 23.

BPBD has a TMC budget for 2024 of IDR 4.19 billion. The DKI Provincial Government has spent part of the budget for TMC on December 7-9 and December 12-15, 2024. Thus, the remaining budget is IDR 1.3 billion.

Teguh admitted that previously he was still considering the ease of the process of disbursing unexpected expenditure funds (BTT) for the operational costs of weather modification.

Because, based on previous experience, the DKI Provincial Government only uses BTT when there are urgent conditions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The government also needs to establish an emergency response status before the BTT budget is used.

"It turns out, if previously with the BTT costs we thought we should issue an emergency status, we will pay attention to the Minister of Home Affairs related to BTT, there is also a kind of mechanism related to budget shifts. So, in urgent conditions," explained Teguh.

"So, later for BTT, there is no need to issue an emergency status, but in urgent conditions. If the rainfall is quite high, we will do it," he continued.

However, Teguh admitted that the DKI Provincial Government is still monitoring the condition of cloud growth in the coming days. This is done in order to determine the right time to carry out weather modifications.

"Later we will see the potential that we have to do to modify the weather, we will do it. But if the relatively sharp cloud conditions result in heavy rains, we will not do it. Therefore, coordination with BMKG will be carried out even more intensely," he added.