To Overcome Floods, Bobby Nasution Adds Budget For Bedera River Land Acquisition Medan Plus Asks For Central Assistance

Medan Mayor Bobby Nasution/PHOTO VIA ANTARA

MEDAN - Medan Mayor Bobby Nasution has taken a policy to increase the land acquisition budget to normalize the Bedera River to Rp45 billion to overcome flooding.

Head of Medan City Bappeda, Benny Iskandar, said that initially the local government allocated a budget for the Bedera River land acquisition of IDR 35 billion.

"For this reason, the Rp10 billion allocation for the Babura River has been diverted to the Bedera River. Therefore, the allocation for the Bedera River has increased to Rp45 billion," he said, quoted by Antara, Sunday, October 10.

This policy was taken by the Mayor of Medan Bobby Nasution after coordinating with the Director General of Water Resources of the Ministry of PUPR Jarot Widyoko in Jakarta this week.

"At the meeting, the mayor explained that there was another Rp 10 billion budget allocation that was previously projected for land acquisition on the Babura River," said Benny.

However, explained Benny, the budget for the Babura River cannot be realized next year, because a total budget of IDR 1.3 trillion is needed for land acquisition.

Although the budget has become Rp45 billion, he continued, there is still another Rp14 billion less due to the total need for land acquisition for Sungai Bedera in the Medan area of Rp59 billion. Meanwhile, the Bedera River land acquisition in the Deli Serdang area reached Rp 12 billion.

"That's what we ask the central government to allocate," he explained.

The land acquisition for the normalization of the Bedera River cannot be carried out in the Medan area only, because the Bedera River crosses the Deli Serdang area.

"If the lower reaches of the Bedera River in the Deli Serdang area are not released, then normalization is in vain. The water is still clogged in Deli Serdang," said Benny.

"To overcome this, the PUPR Ministry will increase the budget for the normalization of the Bedera River to help with land acquisition costs or write to the North Sumatra Provincial Government to allocate the budget shortfall," said Benny.