If there is potential for building a dam, we will build it."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Eight dams whose construction began in 2016, for flood control and water supply, will be completed in 2019, Minister of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Basuki Hadimuljono has said.
"For the next five years, the ministry already has a program to build 49 dams, which are scattered in various provinces," Basuki told reporters in Manado, North Sulawesi, on Tuesday.
He made the statement, while accompanying President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), at a dam construction site in the village of Kuwil Kawangkoan, District Kalawat, North Minahasa District, North Sulawesi.
Basuki said Kuwil Dam was one of eight dams contracted in 2016 and scheduled for completion by 2019.
The PUPR ministry, he said, began building 13 dams in 2015, and will start construction on nine more in 2017.
Dams contracted in 2015 are targeted for completion in 2018, while those contracted in 2017 will be completed in 2020.
The dams, he said, have multiple functions. They will function as irrigation canals to control floods, provide water supply for generation of electric power and for use by the surrounding community, and also serve as a tourist attraction.
Referring to the Kuwil Dam, Basuki said that it was 345 meters long, 70 meters high, and had a capacity of 23 million cubic meters of water. It main aim is to control floods in Manado city.
It can hold around 470 cubic meters of water per second, generate 1.4 megawatts of electricity, as well as provide 4.5 cubic meters of water per second to the city of Manado.
"The benefits of the Kuwil Dam will be huge for the Manado community," the minister said.
The PUPR ministry is also currently looking for another location that has the potential for a dam so that no more areas will be flooded.
"If there is potential for building a dam, we will build it," he said.
(Uu.A014/INE//KR-BSR/B003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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