Bart Schultz
As I mentioned in several previous contributions to Flevolands Geheugen, since 1985 I have been involved in various ways in the development of lowland areas and polders in Indonesia. Consequently, I travelled with three employees from IHE-Delft to Jakarta, where the course was to be held in a hotel.
During the first two mornings, we mainly gave our presentations, with short exercises in the afternoon. Presentations were also given on Wednesday morning. An employee from the ministry also joined us; incidentally, he was a former student of ours with whom we had visited the Dadahup Polder in South Kalimantan last year. He primarily presented the government's new project for large-scale lowland reclamation in the Merauke area of Papua. This project now plays an important role in relation to the targeted increase in Indonesia's food production.
It turned out that no fewer than twenty ministries were involved in the planning and realization, as well as a number of other organizations. This makes the realization quite complex. We also discussed the first phase of the project in more detail. It became apparent that the physical conditions in the area to be reclaimed are quite complex. For instance, the new reclamations must be realized on rather loose clay soils.
In this context, there was also considerable interest in the reclamation process that wase carried out at the time in the IJsselmeerpolders Development Authority. I therefore quickly added a number of slides regarding this reclamation process to my presentations and emphasized the importance of taking the time for the reclamation, because otherwise the farmers will be settled under circumstances where they will face major problems, with significant negative consequences for the project itself as well.
One of the participants was well-informed about the situation in the Telang I area in the Musi Delta in South Sumatra. As I also described in my contribution to Flevolands Geheugen regarding Polders near primary canal 6 in the Musi Delta, South Sumatra, I have visited this area several times since 1985 and have observed with great satisfaction how well the farmers in this region have developed. I was there the last time in 2016. She tells me that the positive development has continued. However, there is now a problem with silt deposition in the secondary canals. These have been there for about fifty years now and urgently need to be dredged. I therefore hope that this will be realized in the short term.
During the last two days, the participants worked on the exercises in groups. The results were presented by the groups on the final afternoon. We noticed that they enjoyed themselves and collaborated very well with each other. This therefore bodes well for the future.
As mentioned, the short course took place in a hotel in Jakarta. This hotel had no fewer than 27 floors, and Jakarta, with a total of 42 million inhabitants, had by then become the largest city in the world. By chance, a month earlier I had stayed in a similar hotel in Kuala Lumpur, with a total of 7.5 million inhabitants. These hotels, and many similar high-rise buildings, are located in densely populated, potentially flood-prone areas, or even in polders with relatively low flood protection. Due to these kinds of developments, the likelihood of something going wrong somewhere in these types of cities due to a flood will only increase in the near future.
