Sigi Tanam Bambu Regency Government In The Cegah Watershed Has The Potential To Overflow Into Floods

Planting bamboo in the Kulawi District watershed. (ANTARA/HO-Doc of the Regional Secretariat of the Sigi Regency Government)

SULTENG - Sigi Regency Government (Pemkab) utilizes bamboo to make flood-resistant gabions as an effort to reduce disaster risk.

"Bambu has a strong durability to water, so it is used for layered defense to prevent flooding," said Deputy Regent Sigi Samuel Yansen Pongi, in Sigi, Central Sulawesi (Sulteng), Thursday, February 23, confiscated by Antara.

The use of bamboo as flood-resistant gabions, said Samuel, has been carried out in several villages in Sigi whose rivers have decreased the quality of the watershed.

In its implementation, he said, the Sigi Regency Government involved multi-party, one of which was volunteers and communities as well as non-governmental organizations.

Sigi Regency Government, he said, has a program of a million bamboos. Through the program of a million bamboos, the local government provides bamboo and bamboo cultivation to be planted in watersheds (DAS).

"We have many rivers, when it rains with heavy intensity, it really poses a disaster risk to the community, one of the alternatives and the efforts made is to plant bamboo along the river," he said.

The Sigi Regency Government admits that the area is vulnerable to natural disasters of flash floods and landslides. Not to mention, the area was included in the earthquake fault line.

According to him, there needs to be innovation and joint movement to build mitigation and prevent natural disasters of flash floods and landslides, one of which is to restore the quality of river basins by planting bamboo.

Bambu, he said, becomes a water holder and material from the river, as well as serves to improve the quality of the environment, especially the watershed.

Therefore, he said, the bamboo million program was implemented in all villages in Sigi Regency, involving the community and the village government.

As for gabions using bamboo in the hope that the bamboo can grow through bamboo segments, the growing bamboo will become bamboo clumps that can withstand/reduce the flow of flood water.