10:09 AM
Cheexa
The conditions of all 189 reservoirs in Jakarta and in its satellite towns of Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi (Jabotabek), including Situ Gintung, are actually safe, a senior official said.
"Actually, we have inspected the condition of the Situ Gintung reservoir in 2008 and we found it was still good," Water Resources Director General of the Ministry of Public Works, Iwan Nusyirwan Diar said here on Monday.
He said that based on Public Works Minister Decree No. 72, 1992, the conditions and dams and reservoirs must be checked every year.
He said that the Ciliwung-Cisadane River Management Agency which was the responsible party had inspected the conditions of Lake Gintung in 2008.
"We have built a jogging track around the dam which means that inspection around the dam has been carried out. So, it could be concluded that the collapse of a section of its embankment was due to heavy rains," Nusyirwan said.
He said that the big number of people killed in the dam collapse was due to the population density living around the lake, where even the area around a steam of the dam was occupied by many residents.
"They occupy areas around the stream which runs down the Pesanggrahan river, so that the stream width, initially 5 to 7 meters, narrowed to 1.5 meters," he said.
The director general said that houses built in the dam stream area covered one RW, or a group of neighborhoods, which explained why the number of victims killed in the accident was big.
About 4 a.m on Friday, the Situ Gintung reservoir in Cireundeu vilalge, Ciputat subditrict, Tangerang district, Banten, collapsed, killing at least 98 people and causing over 100 others gone missing.
Heavy rains last Thursday night had caused the 255-meter long section of the dam to burst, releasing the huge body of water from its 21-hectare lake into the lower lying residential areas inundating hundreds of houses in its path as far as about one kilometers to the north.
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