Head of Dam Oversight Agency Offers to Resign

The Jakarta Globe, Sally Piri, Putri Prameshwari & Farouk Arnaz, March 29, 2009

Amid mounting public pressure for government accountability in the Situ Gintung reservoir disaster that killed at least 98 people early on Friday morning, Pitoyo Subandrio, head of the Ciliwung-Cisadane Agency that oversees freshwater dams in the basin of the two rivers, said on Sunday that he was willing to resign.

His apparent readiness to become the only public official thus far to step down comes as rescue workers continue to search for 136 people still listed as missing.

The National Police, meanwhile, were investigating possible criminal negligence, given that cracks had appeared a year ago on the eastern embankment of the reservoir that crumbled last week.

“I’m not a coward. If this [mistake] happened within my scope of work, I have no problem stepping down,” Pitoyo told the Jakarta Globe.

He said he acknowledged during an emergency meeting chaired by Vice President Jusuf Kalla later on Friday that Situ Gintung, which lies in the Tangerang area of Banten Province, was under his supervision.

“I have explained everything. The highest state official has already said it was a natural disaster,” Pitoyo said, referring to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. “If it the burden of duty falls on me to [resign], why not?”

Yudhoyono on Saturday sought to label the incident a natural disaster because heavy rainfall had pushed the water level inside the reservoir to its brim. A 20-meter section of embankment crumbled under water pressure at 4 a.m.

JanJaap Brinkman, a Ministry of Public Works official from Holland and team leader of a flood-hazard mapping project, said the Ciliwung-Cisadane Agency and its head should be held responsible for the disaster. “If anyone’s to blame, it’s Pitoyo,” he said.

Brinkman said the reservoir may have been neglected because Indonesia’s regional autonomy process has made it unclear which government agency was responsible for dam maintenance. “It’s unclear who is responsible for maintaining the Gintung dam especially as it’s located just outside of Jakarta,” he said.

Budi Widiantoro, head of Jakarta’s Public Works Agency, said the city administration was not responsible for maintaining Situ Gintung. “It is outside Jakarta, so it should be under the Tangerang administration,” he said.

Pitoyo said the Ministry of Public Works allocated Rp 1.5 billion ($130,500) last year to maintain and upgrade the reservoir, in addition to building a jogging track for community use, dredging mud and clearing garbage.

However, Erwin Usman, an activist from the Indonesian Environmental Forum, or Walhi, said the organization had information showing that leaks in the embankment had been reported in 2008. These problems were not repaired as part of the Ciliwung-Cisadane Agency’s maintenance program. “Walhi is planning to report the case to the police for further investigation,” Erwin said.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Abubakar Nataprawira said investigators at the disaster scene had not yet found any evidence of negligence.

The 21-hectare Situ Gintung reservoir was built by the Dutch between 1930 and 1933, and holds some two million cubic meters of water.

The deluge that followed the collapse of the embankment emptied the reservoir, destroying at least 300 houses, injuring more than 190 people and leaving another 1,600 homeless.

Arbi Sanit, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia, said Banten’s Regional Legislative Council should ask provincial and municipal authorities in Banten and Tangerang to take responsibility.

“In a country with a civilized political system, whoever is responsible should have already stepped down, as this disaster has claimed [at least] a hundred lives,” Arbi said.