As many as 63 illegal buildings stood atop drainage on Jalan Raya Cipinang Kebembem, RW 08, Pisangan Timur Urban Village, Pulogadung Sub-District, East Jakarta, will soon be demolished. The demolition is carried out to minimize flooding in that area.

We will demolish those buildings next week. All buildings must be demolished because they stood atop drainage

For information, those buildings have existed since 20 years ago. Most of them are used as business places, like groceries stores, workshops, food stalls, until fitness centre.

According to Head of Conservation Section for East Jakarta Water Management Public Works Sub-Department, Nursiwan, his party had tried to demolish those buildings last year. However, the plan was cancelled due to getting resistance from the building owners.

“We will demolish those buildings next week. All buildings must be demolished because they stood atop drainage. As a result, the area in RW 08 becomes often flooded and we’re having difficulties to do maintenance work,” he uttered, Tuesday (10/7).

Based on beritajakarta.com observations, those buildings were built on a 300-meter wide drainage, thus making the area looks slum. The demolition target is located right behind Cipinang Rice Market’s wall.

Meanwhile, Head of East Jakarta Water Management Public Works Sub-Department, Hendry Dunant, told that this year his sub-department plans to restore the function of drainages located in 13 points.

“Of those 13 points, 6 of them have been controlled while the rests are still being recorded. We’ll gradually demolish all buildings stood atop drainages, so the drainages can be restored their function or normalized,” he stated.