Recycled plastic roads ready for rollout after bike paths prove successful

DutchNews, May 28, 2020 

Photo: Plasticroad.eu

Two successful trial runs of cycle paths madefrom recycled plastic waste have paved the way for larger scale projects in the Netherlands and abroad, the developers have said. 

KWS, plastic pipe maker Wavin and Total oil said on Thursday that after a 18 months of testing and developing, they now have a design suited for industrial production and that the technology is ready to be launched on the market in the first quarter of 2021. 

The first plastic cycle paths, which were built in Zwolle and Giethoorn with local council support, have proved to be able manage excessive water from rain, severe drought and everything in between, the makers said. 

The two 30 metre bike paths, which were made using 1,000 kilos of recycled plastic, were also found to have reduced CO2 emissions by some 50% to 70% compared to concrete or asphalt paths, the makers claim. 

Sensors in the paths were also used to monitor wear and tear and the paths were found to stand up well to heavy weights, like refuse and maintenance trucks. 

‘We have proven that our ground-breaking circular concept – a prefab road based on recycled plastic – is feasible in practice,’ Marcel Jager and Anne Koudstaal of the PlasticRoad team said. 

The next generation of roads will be more robust still which will make the concept a viable alternative for asphalt and concrete motorways and car parks as well pavements and school yards, the group said. 

The roll out will initially be focused on clients in the Netherlands and neighbouring countries, after which they expect to scale up to markets in other parts of the world, the makers said.

Artists impression: KWS 

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No burning rubber here: plastic road opens in Zwolle

KLM to invest in major sustainable aviation fuel plant in Delfzijl

DutchNews, May 27, 2019

Photo: DutchNews.nl

Dutch flag carrier KLM is to invest millions of euros in the first European industrial plant to produce sustainable aviation fuel, also known as bio-kerosene. 

The production plan will be located in Delfzijl, in the north of Groningen, and will specialise in producing sustainable fuels using waste products such as used cooking oil as feedstock. 

The plant will open in 2022 and is a ‘concrete step towards fulfilling KLM’s sustainability ambitions and contributing to the broader industry plan,’ the airline said. 

The plant will be owned and operated by SkyNRG, which claims to be the global market leader in sustainable aviation fuel and was set up by KLM with partners in 2010. 

SHV Energy, global leader in LPG distribution, will invest in the facility and will purchase the bioLPG which the plant produces. Amsterdam’s state-owned airport Schiphol will also be investing in the development of the factory, KLM said.

‘By joining hands with other parties, we can build a plant that will accelerate the development of sustainable aviation fuel,’ KLM chief executive Pieter Elbers said. 

From 2022, the plant will produce 100,000 tonnes a year, of which KLM will purchase 75,000 tonnes. This, Elbers said, will reduce the company’s CO2 emissions by 200,000 tonnes a year, which is equal to the emissions released by 1,000 KLM flights between Amsterdam and Rio de Janeiro.

No burning rubber here: plastic road opens in Zwolle

DutchNews, September 11, 2018 - By Senay Boztas

Artists impression: KWS 

They call it re-cycling. The municipality of Zwolle today opens a trial 30m stretch of bike path made from reused plastic, in a project that hopes to speed up road building and give old bottles a second life. 

The PlasticRoad, made “from as much recycled plastic as possible” has been created by the businesses KWS, plastic pipe maker Wavin and Total oil and gas group and the pilot is being supported by Zwolle. 

The designers hope that the prefabricated road structure will be able to help prevent flooding, with a special hollow to hold water or carry cables, and last three times longer than traditional road structures. 

KWS announced the concept in 2015, with inventor Simon Jorritsma saying: “You see a bottle; we see a road.” 

A second trial road will be built in November in Overijssel province, reports the Telegraaf.

Zwolle to get ‘world’s first’ plastic bike path as trials start in September

DutchNews, June 8, 2018

Artists impression: KWS

Zwolle is to get what it says is the world’s first plastic cycle path – a 30 metre long stretch of ‘road’ made of recycled plastic which will be used to test if the technology is suitable to be rolled out in more places. 

The Zwolle bike path will be open to cyclists in September and a second stretch of track will be opened elsewhere in Overijssel province later in the year, civil engineering group KWS said in a website statement. 

The plastic road concept was launched by KWS in 2015 and since 2016, the company has further developed the project with plastic pipe maker Wavin and the Total oil and gas group. 

The two pilots will consist of 30 meter long bicycle paths made of hollow prefabricated elements so that water drainage and pipes can be inserted. Their exact location still has to be decided. 

‘These pilots mark an important step towards the developing process and success of the plastic road,’ KWS said. 

‘The objective is to create a road with a smaller ecological footprint than traditional road systems. When the elements reach their end of life expectancy they can be recycled again, contributing to a circular economy and cleaner environment,’ the company said.

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Paris bans old cars from streets in pollution crackdown

Yahoo – AFP, July 1, 2016

Authorities in Paris are making efforts to clean up the city's polluted air
(AFP Photo/Francois Guillot)

Paris (AFP) - Paris cracked down Friday on ageing polluting cars, with vehicles registered before 1997 no longer allowed on the streets from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm on weekdays.

Dozens of police were on duty to warn motorists that driving their old cars would soon land them with a fine of 35 euros ($39).

The move is a part of efforts by Paris city hall to clean up its air, which regularly violates EU norms and is estimated to cut six to eight months off the life expectancy of residents.

Cars older than 10 years are estimated to cause half of the city's air pollution.

A ban on thin plastic bags at checkout counters also went into force on Friday.

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Dutch company launches plan for recycled plastic roads

DutchNews, September 17, 2015

An artist's impression of how the plastic roads would work

Dutch company KWS Infra is developing a new sort of road made from recycled plastic. This, the company says, will not only cut down on plastic waste but reduce CO2 output from road building and usage, and make roads more sustainable and safer. Esther O’Toole reports. 

An estimated eight billion tons of plastic is floating around in the oceans and 55% of our plastic waste is still incinerated. Innovative Dutch companies have been busy looking at feasible ways of fishing the plastic out of the sea and shipping it to shore. Now KWS Infra, part of the VolkerWessels construction group and the biggest road builder in the Netherlands, has come up with a plan to turn that kind of plastic waste into roads. 

The roads themselves would be made from prefab sections prepared offsite from 100% recycled plastic and brought en masse to the building site, with road markings and guard rails already in place. Being light weight and easy to transport they could take months off construction times. 

The fabric is thought to be more durable than asphalt and needs little or no maintenance, being weather proof and impervious to weeds. The other major advantage is that they are hollow allowing space for piping, electric cables and – another hot topic for VolkerWessels – internet connections. 

Internet 

VolkerWessels is now investing in multiple projects for urban renewal and connected city innovation, including placing internet receivers along roads, be they antennas and masts or embedded in street lights and wind turbines. Plastic roads fit into this picture perfectly. If the space inside the decking could also be used to house net connectors, losing reception in a tunnel would become a thing of the past. 

Driverless cars, cheap and affordable ones too, will be on the open market as early as next year. What benefits will be reaped from these innovative technologies when they begin to converge? With uninterrupted mobile internet connections along all main highways, a long commute could be set to become the most productive part of the day. 

No wonder then that VolkerWessels is not having trouble garnering interest for their projects. Rotterdam city council was the first to show interest in piloting the PlasticRoad, in early July. 

Interest 

Since then the company has had interest from cities all over the world and are looking to finalise partnerships with plastics and recycling experts soon, spokesman Anne Koudstaal told DutchNews.nl. The aim is to have a team in place by December and to run a feasibility pilot within three years.

‘We are feeling very positive about it,’ he said. ‘All the good reactions [to July’s announcement] are a huge boost for us and the idea. It makes it all seem so much more realisable.’ 

If all goes to plan, the roads themselves may in turn be recyclable. This would bring PlasticRoad completely in line with the ‘cradle to cradle’ notions of the circular economy being implemented by other innovative ideas such as The Ocean Clean Up Project and the Plastic Madonna art project. 

The Netherlands, despite being one of the smallest countries in the developed world by land mass, has one of the highest carbon footprints per capita; especially in relation to fossil fuel use and cement production. Cutting emissions related to road usage and building would seriously reduce that footprint. Especially when one considers that the road network in the country covers approximately 135,470 km and most of it is tarmacked.

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An impression of how the system might look. Photo: Ocean Cleanup

Recycling of electric vehicle batteries encouraged in China

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-06-21

An electric vehicle charging station in Shanghai, June 20, 2014. (File photo/CNS)

Amid a rosier outlook for new energy cars in China, the country's government has taken measures to encourage the recycling and reuse of batteries for electric vehicles after they are phased out following five or more years of use, Shanghai's China Business News reports.

The cost of batteries for a 300,000 yuan (US$48,000) electric car can be up to 100,000 yuan (US$16,000) or more. Generally, batteries for cars are designed to retain up to 80% of their capacity but when their capacity drops to below the 80% threshold they can no longer be used, according to the report.

Many new-energy vehicle companies offer a battery warranty on electric cars for 10 years but if certain specific conditions of use are taken into account, the average lifespan of batteries is five years, an anonymous industry expert said.

The problem is how to deal with these used-up batteries, the expert added. Generally speaking, waste electric vehicle (EV) batteries could be eventually taken back into the recycling system for material recycling or echelon reuse.

Echelon reuse refers to the reuse of various components of batteries. waste batteries, which can be disassembled into battery cells and can be reused in the form of a mono-cell.

Putting waste EV batteries into reuse would not only help with energy conservation efforts but also help reduce the cost of electric vehicles if the secondary echelon reuse of EV batteries is wide enough, said Yin Chengliang, vice president of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Automotive Engineering School.

In July 2012, the government introduced a new policy for energy conservation and developing a new energy vehicle industry which contains measures for EV battery recycling and reuse to encourage the practice among battery manufacturing and recycling companies.

Despite multiple problems arising from the recycling process, the government has deemed EV battery recycling a high priority.

It is estimated that by 2020, China's new energy vehicle output could reach 5 million and waste EV batteries could reach 120,00-170,000 tonnes. This rapid pace of development will make battery recycling of paramount importance for the government to prevent contamination to the environment. The government devised a policy on December 2014 to provide subsidies for battery recycling.

Hainan Airlines marks China's first passenger flight with biofuel

Want ChinaTimes, Xinhua 2015-03-22

The Boeing 737 is loaded with biofuel before the flight from Shanghai Hongqiao
International Airport, March 21. (Photo/Xinhua)

Hainan Airlines announced on Saturday it has completed China's first passenger flight with sustainable biofuel, a milestone for the country's commercial aviation industry.

The flight, which carried more than 100 passengers from Shanghai to Beijing in a Boeing 737, used biofuel made by Sinopec from waste cooking oil collected from restaurants in China.

The airplane's two engines were powered by the fuel blended of approximately half biofuel and half traditional jet fuel, the company said.

"We are honored to see our flight with safe and effective biofuel," said Pu Ming, vice president of Hainan Airlines, also the flight's pilot.

Boeing has been collaborating with Chinese airlines to develop aviation biofuel industry. In 2011, Air China conducted China's first test flight with aviation biofuel in a Boeing 747.

UK's first 'poo bus' goes into regular service

Bio-Bus fuelled by human and household waste, which first ran between Bristol and Bath, will operate 15-mile route four days a week

The Guardian, Press Association, Sunday 15 March 2015

Bristol’s Bio Bus runs on faeces and household waste. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

Britain’s first “poo bus”, which runs on human and household waste, goes into regular service later this month.

Powered by biomethane gas, the Bio-Bus will use waste from more than 32,000 households along its 15-mile route.

Operated by First West of England, the bus will fill up at a site in Avonmouth, Bristol, where sewage and inedible food waste is turned into biomethane gas.

The bus, which can seat up to 40 people, was unveiled last autumn. First is showing the bus in Bristol on Tuesday before it starts operating four days a week from 25 March.

If the route is successful, First will consider introducing more “poo buses”. The managing director, James Freeman, said: “Since its original unveiling last year, the Bio-Bus has generated worldwide attention and so it’s our great privilege to bring it to the city.

“The Bio-Bus previously made an appearance running between Bath and Bristol airport at the end of last year, but it’s only actually been used once before in the centre of Bristol itself.

“The very fact that it’s running in the city should help to open up a serious debate about how buses are best fuelled, and what is good for the environment.”

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Singapore looks to Taipei as unlikely model for cleanliness

Want China Times, CNA 2015-01-31

A worker cleans Taipei Main Station, July 24, 2009. (Photo/Chen Chih-yuan)

Singapore is well known for its strict rules intended to keep its streets clean, so it may come as a surprise that activists in the city-state are looking to Taipei as an example of how to maintain a trash-free city.

But Liak Teng Lit, chairman of Singapore's non-governmental Public Hygiene Council, told the Straits Times that his country has "let things deteriorate until we now have a crisis of cleanliness," a reference to the massive amount of trash left strewn about last weekend after a music festival.

In contrast, Liak said that on a recent trip to Taiwan, he and other council members learned that "cleaning is a part of education," adding that it "teaches the value of labor and that it is not shameful to sweat."

He praised Taipei for keeping its streets clean with only 5,000 professional cleaners looking after a city of almost 3 million people, whereas Singapore has a small army of 70,000 cleaners for its population of 5 million.

The praise echoes remarks made by William Wan, co-founder of the Singapore Kindness Movement that works with Liak's organization, who said earlier in the month that trash left after New Year's celebrations showed that Singapore needs to transform from a "cleaned city" to a "clean city."

Revelers who left a "meadow of trash" at the Gardens by the Bay this past weekend told the Straits Times they littered because they saw other people doing it and assumed somebody would come by to collect it.

On Wednesday, Singapore's prime minister Lee Hsien Loong took to Facebook to draw attention to the sad scene left after the Laneway music festival.

"All of us can play a part in picking up our own litter, educating our children and grandchildren, and reminding others to do the right thing," the prime minister wrote.

Come clean

Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 03/26/2010 5:35 PM | Jakarta

Come clean: Jakarta government employees hang two containers carrying 20 cubic meters of garbage in front of the National Monument in Central Jakarta. The display marked the launch of jakartabersih.com to promote a clean city by Governor Fauzi Bowo on Friday. - JP/Indah Setiawati

Review 2009: Jakarta’s problems, dealing with land and water woes in 2010

Prodita Sabarini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 12/23/2009 10:00 AM

As we gear up to welcome a new year, Governor Fauzi Bowo carries several unfinished problems from 2009 with him, both above and below Jakarta’s surface.

Fauzi’s decision last month to convert 27 gas stations into green spaces, which will serve as water catchment areas, is a welcome gesture.

It is, however, not enough as Jakarta is increasingly burdened by the weight of development and a growing population.

Experts predict that Jakarta’s population will hit 30 million by 2020, placing considerable strain on infrastructure and quality of life.

To counter some of the man-made environmental degradation, the administration is likely to keep its spatial target for green spaces at 13.9 percent.

Regardless, the central government requires that Jakarta devote at least 30 percent of its 662.33 square kilometer area for open and green spaces.

Currently less than 10 percent of Jakarta qualifies as open and green space.

Jakarta’s problems, however, also exist below the surface.

While water catchment areas are rapidly decreasing, the city administration also has problems in relation to uncontrolled groundwater extraction.

Throughout the year, the Jakarta Environmental Agency has been working hard to monitor and seal illegal groundwater wells in the city. However, the agency says it is too difficult to monitor all offenders.

Another worrying problem is water contamination from increased sewage.

Jakarta may be the only metropolis that has an almost non-existent sewage system. Less than 1 percent, or 560 hectares of the total area of Jakarta is equipped with an efficient sewage system, according to the City Water Regulatory Board, while the rest simply dump their domestic waste into rivers.

“Jakarta is literally a megalopolis standing on a pile of doo-doo,” board member Firdaus Ali was quoted as saying in September.

The regulatory body said the city would need Rp 11 trillion (US$ 1.11 billion) or roughly half of its 2009 budget to build a proper sanitation system, according to the Water Regulatory Board.

The city only has one sewage treatment plant in Setiabudi, South Jakarta, and waste treatment facilities in Pulo Gebang, East Jakarta, and Duri Kosambi, West Jakarta.

The latest move to build a sanitation system was in 2002, when the city signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) worth $5.3 billion with an Australian company to develop a proper sanitation system.

Under the agreement, the company was to construct a deep tunnel sewerage system to treat all liquid waste in the capital.

Where should we start fixing the problem?

Civil engineering graduate Eva Komandjaja from the Technical University of Denmark said that for a large city like Jakarta, which has never had a proper drainage system, a good starting point might be building a combined sewer overflow (CSO).

In drainage terms, a CSO means both rainwater and household sewage water run through the same pipe, hence the “combined” part.

Eva said the advantage of this system was that it was relatively cheap to construct. This system however, spells trouble for a city that has a large annual rainfall such as Jakarta. The large amount of rainwater could overflow the system and would literally flood the streets.

“A separated system, on the other hand, is probably the best solution in long-term,” she said.

“However, it’s expensive and it takes a lot of work to build as two different pipes must be laid on top of each other — one for rainwater, which does not require further treatment and can be piped directly to open water bodies and the other for sewage water leading to wastewater treatment plant.” she said.

Eva said the important choice was in the hands of the city administration.

Dirtiest river

The Jakarta Post, Sun, 12/06/2009 5:37 PM | National

Two scavengers search for plastic garbage in Citarum River, Baleendah in Bandung on Sunday. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has declared the 270 kilometer river as the world’s most polluted river. (Antara/Rezza Estily)

The few, the wet

The Jakarta Post | Tue, 11/10/2009 11:47 AM

The Indonesian Military’s Marines clean up part of the Ciliwung River in the Juanda area, Central Jakarta, on Monday. The activity, involving more than 3,000 marines, was held in conjunction with the 64th anniversary of the corps, which falls on Nov. 15. JP/Nurhayati

Kuta's busy streets regularly awash

Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post, Kuta | Sat, 03/07/2009 2:31 PM  |  Bali 

After two consecutive scorching hot days earlier in the week, it was raining hard Wednesday evening and foreign tourists walking on Jl. Kartika in Kuta frowned as they saw two sections of the street were completely flooded. 

The busy street, where dozens of hotels and restaurants are located, is an alternative route, a shortcut, leading to the famous Kuta Beach in Badung regency from the nearby Ngurah Rai International Airport. 

But it was jammed with a long queue of motorists who slowly struggled to get through sections with flood water up to 60 centimeters high, one of which was located near the five-star Discovery Kartika Plaza Hotel. 

After the rainwater subsided the following day, it was clear that many drainage holes along the two sections were completely blocked by thick sand, while others were filled with all kinds of garbage. 

Suci Ari, a member of the Bali Hotel Public Relations Association and the spokeswoman of the Santika Hotel, said that this was a common sight on the street. 

"Of course it is disturbing tourists and it has been like this for a considerable time," she told The Jakarta Post on Friday. 

"The problem is no one cares because the drainage system is a public facility." 

But when it comes to guests' comfort, businesses along the street usually make the necessary efforts to solve the problem, at least on their own premises. 

Suci said the section in front of her hotel used to be swamped whenever it rained, so the management decided to make an additional hole that connected to the drainage system. 

I Wayan Sugawa, head of the Badung Highway and Water Management Agency, said he had not received any reports of flooded streets as none of his officers had monitored the area on that rainy night. 

"We will check the drainage holes on the street immediately and see what we can do," he told the Post on Thursday. 

"Usually the water cannot drain away because the holes are clogged with sand as well as litter from the street." 

He said the street was equipped with a 5-kilometer sewerage system on both sides, up to 1.5 meters in height and width, which "should be enough to stop the street from flooding." 

"Piles of garbage and sand inside the system, however, made it difficult for rainwater to drain away," Sugawa said. 

He said the agency had a program to clear materials blocking waterways in the regency but it had yet to reach Jl. Kartika as they were still working on Jl. Arjuna and Jl. Ken Dedes. 

In nearby Denpasar, seven of the 11 villages in the Sidakarya district were flooded early this year after the five-meter-wide Punggawa River broke its banks. 

The Denpasar mayor said the flood was caused by an inadequate water drainage system as well as garbage clogging up the sewers. Meanwhile, the Bali provincial administration plans to map the flood-prone areas, after disastrous floods hit the island on Jan. 11, to make the disaster management system function more effectively.

Daily trash

The Jakarta Post | Thu, 02/12/2009 4:16 PM 

 Omen, a Jakarta Sanitation Agency worker, collects trash on Utan Kayu river in East Jakarta on Thursday. He works everyday, from morning until late in the afternoon, cleaning the river from domestic garbage thrown recklessly by people living by the river. JP/P.J. Leo

 

Clean canals could reduce flooding by 40%: Expert

Agnes Winarti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 02/02/2009 4:05 PM  

Dredging Jakarta's rivers and canals could reduce flooding in the city by 40 percent, an expert from the Netherlands says. 

"Only by dredging them will we be able to reduce the effect of flooding by 40 percent," Peter Vroege told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview. 

Vroege leads a team of Dutch experts assisting the city administration's efforts to dredge Kali Mati and Kali Pademangan canals in North Jakarta. 

"Most Jakarta rivers and canals have silted up by up to 50 percent *of their original depths*," Vroege said, quoting a 2007 study by the city's river management body and Dutch experts under the Partners for Water program. 

According to the study, Jakarta has 18 main canals and over 500 smaller canals that are 2 to 15 meters in width. The study estimates that the city's network of canals has become silted up with 9 million cubic meters of sediment and waste. 

The city administration said the city's canal network performed only at 50 to 70 percent of its capacity. 

The system can accommodate a maximum of 50 millimeters of rainfall in a day. However, daily rainfall exceeding that amount is not uncommon during the rainy season. 

Vroege said the canals should be dredged regularly. 

"In Holland, the canals are dredged once every five or 10 years.*But*how frequent the dredging is will depend on whether people stop throwing garbage into the canals," he said. 

"That's why the administration needs to establish a better waste system and keep*reminding the people*not to throw away garbage into canals." 

City Public Works Agency head Budi Widiantoro said his office had removed 350 cubic meters of mud from the Kali Mati and Pademangan canals, which it then dumped into a nearby swamp in Ancol, also in North Jakarta. 

"After the two canals, we will *prioritize to* dredging the canals in Utan Kayu in East Jakarta, Kebon Bawang in North Jakarta and Krukut Bawah in Tanah Abang and Rawa Kerbau in Cempaka Putih, both in Central Jakarta," he said. 

Budi said that this year the administration had allocated Rp 1.5 billion (US$133,928) for dredging medium-size canals, including Kali Mati and Kali Pademangan. 

The administration has also earmarked Rp 200 billion to dredge Ciliwung River, which runs through Manggarai, Gunung Sahari and Gajah Mada. 

"We will start that in May," he added. 

The administration is also awaiting the disbursement of a World Bank loan worth US$150 million from the central government as part of a project to dredge 18 key drainage canals and retention basins. 

Of the loan, $5 million is allocated for procuring heavy equipment, and the rest is for operational expenses.

Morning ride

The Jakarta Post, JAKARTA | Wed, 01/28/2009 10:15 AM 

An elementary school student rides on a garbage cart to reach his school in Muara Baru, North Jakarta, on Tuesday to avoid floods that inundated many parts of the city, following heavy rains early in the day. JP/P.J. Leo

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Jakarta to revamp Manggarai sluice gates

Triwik Kurniasari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 01/27/2009 1:27 PM  

The city administration plans to build one more gate at South Jakarta's Manggarai sluice gates to regulate the water flow better. 

"The new gate would be installed next to the existing ones, requiring the government to acquire some land plots," Pitoyo Subandrio, head of the Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Bureau at the Public Works Ministry, said on Saturday. 

"The new gate will reduce flooding because the water will run more smoothly than before." 

Pitoyo said the space for the gates, which were built in the 1920s by the Dutch government, would be widened by a dozen meters. 

The width of a gate is about six meters, excluding the pillars. 

Included in the Manggarai revamp is the clearing of the areas along the Ciliwung River, from the Casablanca bridge to the Manggarai sluice gate. 

Flood management expert Jan Jaap Brinkman from the Netherlands Water Research Institute (Deltares) confirmed the urgency of an additional gate in Manggarai. 

"The Manggarai gates need to be improved because they are too small. At this moment it is two gates, but it needs to be three gates," Brinkman, who is also the team leader of Flood Hazarding Mapping 2 at the Public Works Ministry, said. 

Brinkman was speaking after the signing of an agreement between Indonesia and the Netherlands in the fields of meteorology, water management, climate change and early warning systems. 

The administration is currently running flood mitigation projects in anticipation of the rainy season. 

It is now dredging 12 waterways across the city, including in Pademangan River and Mati canal (in North Jakarta), Cakung River (East Jakarta) and Grogol in West Jakarta. 

The Rp 23 billion (US$2.04 million) project is set to dredge 243,322 cubic meters of garbage out of the canals. The canals range from 467 meters to 3,533 meters long. 

The administration is also working on the East Flood Canal project, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The canal will be the primary flood control mechanism for East and North Jakarta. 

The 23.5-kilometer East Flood Canal will stretch across 11 subdistricts in East Jakarta and two subdistricts in North Jakarta. 

PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol Tbk, developer of the Ancol recreational area, is building another five submersible water pumps at its site in anticipation of floods in February. 

"We are building three new water pumps in West Ancol and two more in East Ancol to add to the existing 62 pumps; we hope they will be finished by February," Nurvita Sari, the developer's manager of property maintenance, said. 

The new and existing pumps, each able to pump 30 cubic meters of water per minute, will drain water from households in Ancol to the Ancol River. 

"After the water reaches Ancol River, it's the city's public works agency's responsibility to channel the water to Pluit and Sunter dams," she said. 

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), said that in February the sea level would rise 1.2 meters above normal levels due to a high tide, with the possibility of heavy downpours. 

YJ Harwanto, the developer's general manager of its corporate plan, said they were also raising the wave breakers, adding night shifts to watch over the water level and setting up an information board about the sea level. (fmb)

Hundreds clean five Transjakarta shelters

The Jakarta Post, Tue, 01/27/2009 1:25 PM   

It was a quiet Sunday morning in the usually busy street of Jl. Jend. Sudirman. There were no cars, just Transjakarta buses and crowds of people in some of the bus shelters along Corridor 1. 

Many Jakartans, young and old, men and women alike, grasped cleaning equipment, coming together to clean some of the Transjakarta bus shelters. 

"It's fun because this is not something that happens every day and because people from different schools and communities are working together," Sasya, a student of Tarakanita High School, said on Sunday. 

The Transjakarta busway and the city administration in cooperation with the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) and sponsored by PT Coca-Cola Bottling Indonesia company held the "Cleaning the Transjakarta Bus Shelters together with Coca-Cola" event on Sunday. There were dozens of people cleaning each shelter. They cleaned the windows, swept the floor, collected trash, and pulled stickers off the walls. 

"I think there were more than 50 people to each shelter, far too many in fact, because I saw there were people doing nothing while others were working," Sasya said. 

There were hundreds of volunteers from the company, the Transjakarta employees, high school and college students, the marines, and various communities such as the Jakarta Green Monster and the Green Map, cleaning five of the total of 20 shelters along Corridor 1 from Blok M, South Jakarta to Kota, Central Jakarta. 

As of January, Transjakarta company operates 269 single buses and 13 articulated buses along 97.35 kilometers of exclusive bus lanes. 

It has 120 shelters along the routes. (JP/fmb)

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