By: Ahmad Pahlevi) *
A great dreamer is one who dares to admit his mistakes. It is likely that this is what Anies Baswedan should do, after the failure of flood management that hit a number of areas in Jakarta. And not to insist on blaming other parties.
Criticism for the sake of criticism is increasingly scattered cornering the Governor of DKI Jakarta, Anies Baswedan. This happens not without reason. Negative talk that is like interlocking due to Anies’s performance which is considered to fail to manage the flood disaster that hit the capital. Increasingly hot preaching lashed back when his arguments in the media did not match reality. For example, 85 percent of Jakarta is not affected by floods such as the Kemang area. He claims the area is safe, because the mobile pump he uses is functioning properly and normally.
Did not take long, the argument was again denied. Starting from the son of the Chairman of the MPR RI Bambang Soesatyo who uploaded a video of his motorcycle submerged by flooding in the Kemang area. There is also a testimony from residents stating that the area was hit by a flood to as high as 2 meters, and considers the flood this time to be the worst.
Such opinions should be based on facts. If this is the case, Anies shows that he himself is not “competent” in managing the city of Jakarta. This matter was made worse when the Governor of DKI said the flood was the responsibility of the central government.
According to Hanura Inas Party politician Nasrullah Zubir said if Anies was failing to understand. Regarding Law Number 23 Year 2014 regarding regional governments. Which is about concurrent government affairs related to water resources and watersheds.
Inas Nasrullah quoted Anies Baswedan’s statement as saying that a number of locations in DKI Jakarta would remain flooded despite efforts to normalize the river. According to Anies, handling flooding in the future is about controlling water upstream by building a number of reservoirs, ponds and embankments, but that is the authority that must be exercised by the central government.
This DPR member from 2014 to 2019 explained that the Regional Government Law had regulated matters which had a negative impact on crossing regency and city areas, managed and implemented by the provincial government. That means, the implementation and management of watersheds that cross the DKI Jakarta area are purely the responsibility of Anies Baswedan as a governor.
Inas Nasrullah reiterated, if the governor’s responsibilities include normalizing the flow of rivers that crossed his territory by making a number of efforts such as; dredging, cleaning, widening, and developing river ecosystems, including overcoming final storage. He even said that Anies must stop diplomacy and immediately work based on the responsibilities that must be lived.
Unlike the previous leader, Anies wanted to overcome and manage floods with the concept of naturalization, and not with the era of river normalization as his predecessors had done. This concept or program has been discussed since the Jakarta Election Campaign period. It claims, the concept of naturalization is more environmentally friendly and has been applied in a number of developed countries such as Japan and Singapore.
With the naturalization of the river Anies is sure to create a friendly environment because it still pays attention to its ecological side. Anies said, normalization often becomes concrete, as soon as possible bring water into the sea. If naturalization can slow down the movement of water. This concept does not use concrete but gabions, river stones that allow biota to live. Worms can enter, small fish can enter. Add Anies at that time.
Anies even poured the concept of naturalization into DKI Governor Regulation Number 31 of 2019 concerning Integrated Development and Revitalization of Water Resources Infrastructure. Through the naturalization system Anies was determined to avoid eviction in an effort to revitalize the river. The reality is that it will only move residents’ houses.
According to a number of parties, herein lies the problem. As we know, dwelling is increasingly crowded in the riverbank area. Almost all rivers not only experience siltation but also decrease in extent. Shrinking from the previous 50 meters to around 15 meters.
Therefore the dredging project must be the solution. Hit by promises during the campaign, Anies failed to make a number of evictions for the smooth dredging project. As a result, these efforts stall in vain. In fact, around April Anies had mentioned the naturalization program would be seen by the end of 2019. But what happened instead was making a special bicycle track with a length of 63 kilometers, unloading sidewalk pairs and discourse on the preparation of electric formula E racing cars.
From this incident residents finally began to signal, the situation was complicated when residents had to flee due to flooding. They considered Anies only continued to have a discourse without realizing it. In fact, his failure to manage the flood was further strengthened by the cut in the land acquisition budget of up to Rp500 billion.
The failure of Anies to manage floods is very real, so it is only natural that many parties will not want their performance to continue. Logically, if the governor doesn’t immediately improve, what will Jakarta be 3 years from now? Even though 2 years have passed in vain, it’s unfortunate!
) * The author is a social political observer
