Raknamo, an isolated village, somewhere in the Indonesian part of the island of Timor will be put in the road map of Jokowi`s food self sufficiency program.
Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (ANTARA News) - Raknamo is only an isolated village in the remote sub-district of Amabi Oefeto, Regency of Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) visited the village on Saturday to inaugurate the groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction of a Rp782 billion dam there.

The Raknamo dam, around 35 kilometers east of here, is to supply standard water to urban areas and to irrigate around 841 hectares of farm lands in the regency of Kupang.

It will also be expected to prevent flooding in downstream area and to feed small hydro power plants with a capacity of 0.216 megawatt per unit to be built there.

State-owned construction company PT Waskita Karya, which has been awarded the project, said the dam would be able to supply 100 liters of water per second.

"We are optimistic that the multipurpose dam would have positive impact on development in other sectors," head of the Civil Division of the publicly traded company Ridwan Darma said.

The dam, which will occupy 147.3 hectares of land, is located 104 meters above the sea level in the river of Noel Puames .

Part of the Raknamo area is occupied by people from East Timor that chose to maintain Indonesian citizenship after the 1999 referendum that gave birth to the East Timor (Timor Leste) state.

PT Waskita Karya chose the location for a number of reasons.

The rainfall in Raknamo is quite high, Ridwan Darma cited.

In his pre election campaign Jokowi pledged to build a number of dams to support agricultural development with food self sufficiency in his vision .

Plans have been made this year to build 11 dams including one at Raknamo.

Public works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said construction of the 11 dams would take three years with a total cost estimated at Rp8.2 trillion.

Basuki said Rp5.6 trillion of the budget had been set aside for the construction of 5 dams to start this year and Rp2.6 trillion for six more dams to follow in 2015 .

Other dam projects to be built with 2014 budget fund include Keureti in North Aceh to cost around Rp1.68 trillion, Karian in Lebak, Banten to cost Rp1.68 trillion , Logung in Kudus, Cenral Java to cost Rp620 billion and Lolak in North Sulawesi to cost Rp850 billion.

Seven more dams are to be built in 2016 in addition to number of water reservoirs including 6 units in 2017, 5 units in 2018 and six units in 2019.

There are two goals to be achieved with the dam projects . In addition to irrigation of farm lands and water supply for urban people, the dams are to feed hydro electric plants to help cope with shortage in power supply.

"The country has a potential to generate up to 75 gigawatts of power, but until now utilization of the potential is only around 5.75 percent," says Lucky Eko Wiryanto, a deputy for area infrastructure and development at the office of the coordinating minister for economy .

Development of the infrastructure is expected to help push up the countrys economic growth to 6-7 percent per year, he said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment, warned of possible problem in security in water resources to be faced by the country in the future.

It said four of nine big Indonesian islands are feared to face deficit in water supply in 2015 .

The four islands include Java with a deficit of 134.103 million cubic meters, Sulawesi with a deficit of 42.518 million cubic meters, Bali 27,652 cubic meters and NTT 4,546 million cubic meters.

"Indonesia as whole has abundant water resources but there is a threat in security of water supply in some areas as the population is not evenly distributed with economic activities centered in Java," a professor in water resource management at the Parahyangan University Robertus Wahyudi Triweko said.

The lawmakers of the Commission V of the House of Representatives recently visited the dam project location in the village of Raknamo during their recess.

"We gave special attention to the dam project . We hope that the project could be finished in three fiscal years," Commission chairman Fary Djemy Francis said.

The politician from Gerindra party said construction of the dam is vital for that area therefore the commission wants acceleration in the completion of the project.

Fary said he hoped the project could be finished in three years instead of five years .

The public works and housing ministry said the project would be completed in five fiscal years.

"We fully support the implementation of the project , but we want it to be completed in three years," a commission member Sigit Sosiantomo said, adding delay in completion would result in an increase in cost.

Construction of the dam is important for the NTT people who have frequently faced crisis in clean water supply.

In East Kupang three villages Naibonat, Raknamo and Manusak are always beset by shortage in water supply in dry season as those areas have few water resources .

They depend much on rain water to irrigate their farm lands.

The dam in Raknamo is expected to put an end to water shortage problem in that area .

Raknamo, an isolated village, somewhere in the Indonesian part of the island of Timor will be put in the road map of Jokowis food self sufficiency program.

It will be marked as the first of 35 dams and water reservoirs to be built in the country until 2019. (*)

Reporter: Laurensius Molan
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2014