Help on the way to dredge city waterways

Tifa Asrianti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta  | Sat, 11/15/2008 11:04 AM  

The Netherlands is sending two heavy dredging machines to Jakarta in order to help the city tackle flooding. 

Team leader of the Dutch Assistance Jakarta Flood Management Pilot Dredging Project, Peter Vroege, said the equipment would be used for two narrow and shallow waterways, the Mati and Pademangan canals in North Jakarta. 

The city administration expects to dredge between 20,000 and 30,000 cubic meters of mud from Mati and Pademangan canals. Mati canal is 2,000 meters long and 12 meters wide, while Pademangan is 2,000 meters long and 2-3 meters wide. 

Vroege said his team would operate the dredging equipment, dubbed floating bulldozers, for three months, from Nov. 24 to February, before giving them to the city administration. 

"We will train the officers at the public works agency so they will be able to operate the equipment on other waterways," he said, adding that the equipment had been used for the last 25 years in the Netherlands. 

Jakarta Public Works Agency head Wisnu Subagyo Yusuf said the pilot project would teach the Jakarta administration the best way to dredge small waterways using the equipment. 

"It doesn't mean the equipment can stop flooding though. It works best on small waterways," he said. 

The equipment is worth 700,000 euros, consisting of one medium-sized floating bulldozer, one small-sized floating bulldozer, spare parts and a rotating drum, which will separate the mud from garbage. 

The floating bulldozers push the mud up to the excavator and rotating drum, and then pack the mud into dump trucks. The mud will be put on a two-hectare plot of land belonging to beach management company PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol. 

To finance the operational costs, the city administration has allocated Rp 1.5 billion in the 2008 revised budget. The budget will cover the cost of diesel for the bulldozers and trucks as well as the cost of establishing an office for the training session. 

Vroege said the equipment arriving at Tanjung Priok Port was a substitute before the new equipment arrived in early January, adding that his team would finish the tender process for the new equipment by next week. 

"However, we must start dredging before the rainy season. We shipped one machine to see if it fit in the waterways and to make some adjustment. So that when the equipment arrives, we can operate them straight away," he said. 

Besides dredging the waterways, the Pilot Dredging Project will also involve the public in the flood mitigation plan. 

"We will hold a neighborhood cleaning program so that communities living near the waterways can clean small canals and gutters in their neighborhood. We will also hold solid waste management to reduce waste from the sources," Vroege said.