Indonesia's North Java Seawall Project Plans to Attract Foreign Investment

President-elect Prabowo plans to partner with Chinese investors to develop a huge seawall along Java's north coast.The Vice-Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Gerindra Party said that he had approached several companies from China. He had been to Beijing twice and Hong Kong, China twice and some were interested. In China, the real estate business is saturated, so they are interested in getting into the seawall project. Prabowo's idea of a mega seawall project would be a government-business-entity partnership (KPBU) program in which the government would have a 20 percent stake and the private sector would have an 80 percent stake. Interested developers are welcome, but he has heard that there are already big developers interested in financing the megaproject, with perhaps 10 kilometers held by one person and another 10 kilometers held by others. Prabowo's brother said the giant seawall project had actually been initiated since the New Order government in Bapenas in 1994, but had not yet been completed.Planning for the giant seawall project had been initiated again 10 years ago and discussions had been held with consultants from the Netherlands, and Prabowo intended to carry on with the idea from Jakarta's waters.

Prabowo's idea was that the seawall would start in Jakarta and later extend to Surabaya and Gresik as well. This is to protect the coast of Java as there are signs that climate change is causing the sea to rise. The reason for this is that as many as 40% of Indonesia's rice fields are located on the north coast of Java, and if they sink, national food security will be threatened. There is no point in establishing food security programs in Papua or Kalimantan if the water level is falling. If one does not want to lose the rice fields in Java, then a huge seawall would be built. Even so, he emphasized that the giant seawall program would not be completed during Prabowo's administration even if Prabowo is able to serve two terms, and he expects the project to last 20-30 years. This follows a meeting between the Public Works and Public Housing PUPR minister and the Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute (NHRI) to explore opportunities for cooperation in the construction of breakwaters and various types of seawall structures. Following this meeting, the NHRI team is scheduled to visit Indonesia in the near future. The NHRI will review the available basic design data and studies prepared by a team of experts consisting of teams from Korea, the Netherlands and the Ministry of PUPR. During this discussion, he emphasized the importance of using the Bandung Water Resources Laboratory (BWRL) and the North Bali Coastal Laboratory (NBCL) for physical modeling of ocean health. This is a knowledge transfer from China to Indonesia and the financing plan will be using a loan scheme.

Conventional breakwaters, usually made of rubble from mountain blasting, take a long time to build and are susceptible to storm damage. The National Research Institute has developed a new innovation in the form of caisson breakwaters, which are designed to resemble an "8" at the top and an oval at the bottom, and which will be buried at a considerable depth underground. Already implemented along 27 kilometers in China's Jiangsu Province, this new innovation is heavier and more wave-resistant, reducing construction time by three times and saving up to 301 TP3T. In addition to being used as a wave breaker, the structure can also be used for river revetments and is being developed for windmills.The chief expert engineer of the PUPR Department said that the north coast of Java is facing the threat of coastal subsidence, with a ground settlement rate of 15-16 centimeters per year, and a serious problem with soft soils. Echo soundings are being conducted to collect bathymetric data and soil surveys for the design of a 22-kilometer long seawall from Bekasi to Tangerang. The project is designed to be integrated with the seawall, which can be used either as a highway to reduce traffic congestion in Jakarta or as an estuarine dam to store fresh water. First, however, community sanitation will have to be improved, as 13 rivers flow into the area, so that the dyke does not turn into a septic tank.