TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Provincial Government's plan to cooperate with the World Bank for the Jakarta Emergency Dredging Initiative (JEDI) project may fail. Deputy Governor Basuki T. Purnama said the loan's repayment is too long for the dredging of 13 water bodies consisting of a number of rivers and reservoirs in Jakarta.
The deputy governor, popular as Ahok, has asked the Minister of Public Works to cancel the loan if there is still time. "It's The World Bank, why up to five years? There is interest," he said at the City Hall on Wednesday (3/25).
Dredging rivers, Ahok said, does not take that long. He even targeted for the project to be completed in no more than two years. "Why (is the loan) until 2017? If that's how they want to do it, we'd rather reject it," he said.
He added that the local government is able to do the project on their own. He asked relevant agencies to source finding for the Rp 1.5 trillion project from a corporate social responsibility (CSR) fund.
SUTJI DECILYA