[JAKARTA] Indonesia will begin the construction of a giant sea wall that will stretch hundreds of kilometres along the nation’s main Java island to prevent flooding and coastal erosion, President Prabowo Subianto said.
The sea wall is estimated to cost US$80 billion and take about 20 years to build, Prabowo said in a speech to investors at the International Conference on Infrastructure in Jakarta on Thursday (Jun 12). It will span at least 500 kilometres from the island’s westernmost city of Banten to the Gresik regency in East Java.
“I do not know which president will complete it, but I will be the one who starts it,” said Prabowo.
Flood control is one of the nation’s strategic priorities, along with providing livable and resilient cities, with more than 70% of Indonesians expected to live in urban areas by 2045, Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono said in the same conference.
Java, the nation’s economic and political centre, is home to 158 million people, more than half of Indonesia’s 284 million population.
While the sea wall is intended to protect cities from floods and land subsidence, some experts have flagged concerns about the potential economic harm for fishermen and local communities who rely on the sea, as well as the disruption to the marine ecosystem.
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The scale and the cost also raise questions about how Indonesia can execute the mega-project, especially as Prabowo intends to pursue other costly initiatives during his presidency. The government is currently rolling out a multi-billion dollar programme to provide free meals to students. It also wants to build three million affordable homes yearly, while renovating schools across the country.
Prabowo said he would soon establish an authority to oversee the giant sea wall project, which has been part of the Indonesia’s national blueprint since 1995 yet has never been carried out. Plans for a smaller sea wall along the coast of Jakarta have also been discussed for over a decade, with the capital being one of the fastest-sinking cities in the world.
The Jakarta segment alone of the sea wall would take about eight years to complete, the president said, adding that this would be funded jointly by the central and local governments. A senior minister revived the plan to build the Jakarta sea wall last year, at an estimated cost of US$10.5 billion.
To extend the sea wall along Java, “we are open to investment from companies in China, Japan, Korea, the Middle East,” Prabowo said. “Those who want to join are welcome, but we will not wait. We will use our own strength.” BLOOMBERG
