Banjarmasin, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - The Banjarmasin City Government's seriousness to accelerate post-flood river normalization is supported by a large enough budget this year, IDR10 billion.
"In previous years we used only a modest budget, now we have a budgetary strength for river normalization," said acting Head of Public Works and Spatial Doyo Pudjadi here on Friday.
According to him, the large enough budget is proof of the city government's seriousness to make river flow function properly to anticipate floods.
In mid-January this year a major flood hit the city and lasted for one month. It caused the city government to form a river normalization task force.
Over the time, said Doyo, the task force then turned into a river normalization team which is now under the command of PUPR Office. The team still contains the same members and supported by the police and community leaders.
The special task of the team, he said, is to curb buildings of bridges over the rivers, especially those on the Veteran River and A Yani River as a priority.
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As is known, he said, river normalization on Jalan A Yani is not only through dredging, but also curbing hundreds of bridges, shop houses, and others deemed to have disturbed the flow of rivers as well as causing the river body to narrow.
This activity, Doyo said, needs a large enough budget, as some heavy equipments have to be deployed, as well as making embankment.
"Everything must be done quickly and measured. We also have conducted socialization in advance to the public, thus they were cooperative in dismantling their own bridges that violate the river body," he said.
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