Bank Dunia Kasih Loans 400 Million US Dollars To Indonesia, For What?

Screenshot - Director of the World Bank for Indonesia and Timor-Leste One Kahkonen in The Launch of The World Bank Indonesia Economic Prospects Report

JAKARTA - The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors approved a loan of 400 million US dollars to support the Indonesian government's efforts to protect 6.3 million urban communities throughout Indonesia from damage caused by flooding and strengthen national flood management.

"The World Bank is ready to assist the Government of Indonesia in strengthening the resilience of Indonesia's floods in the space through integrated investment for disaster preparedness and resilience," said World Bank Director for Indonesia and Timor-Leste Satu Kahkonen as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, December 21.

The National Urban Flood Security Project (NUFReP) will help various cities reduce flood risk by increasing flood risk management capacity at the city and national levels, as well as through investment in handling flood risk in integrated urban areas.

This project will also support the government in preparing and implementing national urban flood resilience programs.

Through NUFReP, he said the local government's capacity to deal with flooding in urban areas, carry out models for handling flood risk, as well as innovative funding mechanisms is expected to increase.

To overcome gender inequality and build community resilience to flooding, the project also aims to increase the role of women in decision making, both in policy design and in sub-projects.

The NUFReP-backed national urban flood resilience program will include several options of integrated action to help cities with different flood and climate risks.

The program will also be an umbrella program at the national level to help coordinate funding sources and function as a center of knowledge to assist cities in Indonesia in improving their good practices and continuing to improve policies, practices, and innovations in this sector.

Meanwhile, the Director General of Water Resources of the Indonesian Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Jarot Widyoko assessed that through NUFReP, the implementation of an integrated gray and blue-green approach, such as building with nature and having the potential to bring various benefits to cities, so that it is more than just an effort to reduce flood risk.

This project will also reach a balance between actions designed with non-structural nature, such as early warning systems and development planning with risk information, which will help both urban and residents mitigate and prepare better in the face of future flood events.

"The Ministry of PUPR together with the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) and the Ministry of Home Affairs are committed to the success of this project which is expected to at the same time build regional capacity and community the practice of flood management across institutions," said Jarot.

The NUFReP project is expected to provide benefits for the people in the cities of Banjarmasin, Bima, Gorontalo, Manado in North Sulawesi, Medan in North Sumatra, and Semarang in Central Java.

The project will begin with supporting analytical studies of the risk of flooding and planning, as well as the preparation of a broad knowledge base to develop a series of strategic plans for multi-year and multi-sector flood robustness in an integrated manner.

Then, this project will support the implementation of an integrated multi-sector approach related to urban flood resilience.

Finally, this project will support the national program for project management and implementation by increasing the risk management capacity of urban floods and by increasing coordination, as well as sharing data and knowledge between institutions and cities.