Jakarta—Ministry of Public Works and Housing (PUPR) targets during 2015-2019 1 billion hectares of new irrigation networks and rehabilitation of 3 billion hectares irrigation network complete this year. To support the completion, PUPR built a lot of dams in several areas and soon to be develop and manage.

7 from 150 National Priority Projects that  occupied by the Ministry of PUPR are the construction of irrigation network and dam.

Those seven projects are irrigation network construction in Irrigation Area of Lhok Guci in West Aceh District and Irrigation Area of Jambo Aye Kanan in North and East Aceh, Irrigation Area of Lematang in Pagaralam in South Sumatera Province, Irrigation Area of Leuwigong in Garut, West Java Province, Irrigation Area of Gumbasa in Sigi District and Palu City of Central Sulawesi Province, and also the construction of Irrigation Supply Area of Umpu Sistem (Way Besai) in Way Kanan District of Lampung Province and Irrigation Area of Baliase in East Luwu District of South Sulawesi Province.

From the seven irrigation projects above, 3 irrigation projects were targeted to complete on 2018. Those three projects are Irrigation Area of Jambo Aye Kanan, Irrigation Area of Lematang and Irrigation Area of Leuwigong.

The construction progress of Jambo Aye Kanan has reached 42 percents with IDR385,5 billions. It will be prime canal along 42 Km and secondary canal along 10 Km, and will irrigate 3.028 hectares area.

Irrigation Area of Lematang has reached 62 percents of construction with IDR273 billion. It will be prime cananl along 10,2 Km and secondary canal along 20,57 Km that will irrigate 3.000 hectares area.

Last, is Irrigation Area of Leuwigong which the progress has reached 68 percents with IDR952 billions. It will be prime canal along 86 Km that will irrigate 5.313 hectares area.

“The construction of dam followed by the irrigation network. So, by the following, the dam that build with high cost will give a lot of benefit where the water will stream down until the farmer’s field,” Basuki said.

Beside the three priority projects of irrigation that targeted to complete on 2018, there are another three that targeted to complete on the next 2019. Those are Irrigation Area of Lhok Guci, Irrigation Area of Gumbasa and Irrigation Area and Dam of Baliase.