Jakarta plans dike to prevent going underwater

Thu, 27 Jan 2011

Jakarta - Indonesia plans to build a large dike to prevent the sea from encroaching on its capital because of land subsidence and rising ocean levels, the governor of Jakarta said Thursday.

"The rate of land subsidence is faster than the rise of sea levels, and both phenomena result in flooding on the north coast of Java, including Jakarta," Governor Fauzi Bowo said.

"So there's no choice but to build a dike," he said without giving details about the size, cost or location of the structure.

Jakarta's city government is to meet in February with the central government to discuss the project.

The city administration has said the land has subsided by up to 1.5 meters in the past 20 years in certain business and industrial areas of Jakarta.

The problem is compounded by an estimated rise of 8 to 30 centimeters in sea levels as part of the effects of climate change.

In response, the city has installed high-powered pumps in the northern part of the city, where the land is below sea level, as part of flood-control measures.

Bowo has said the city has a target to reduce floods by 40 per cent by 2011 and 75 per cent by 2016.

Floods inundated much of Jakarta in 2007, killing 57 people and displacing about 450,000. Losses were estimated at 695 million dollars.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/364503,plans-dyke-going-underwater.html.