Bioswale Construction at RTH Manggala Wanabakti Touches 75 Percent

Central Jakarta City Park and Forestry Sub-agency continues to speed up Bioswale or green infrastructure construction to overcome flooding in green open space (RTH) located in front of Manggala Wanabakti Building, Jalan Jenderal Gatot Subroto, RT 01/03, Gelora Urban Village, Tanah Abang Sub-district.

For now, we want to focus on making Bioswale at RTH Manggala Wanabakti

Central Jakarta City Park and Forestry Sub-agency's Planning Section Head, Andya Ayu Ningrat explained, current progress of Bioswale project at RTH Manggala Wanabakti has reached 75 percent. Similar projects also carried out on Jalan Tambak and Jalan Industri which have reached 25 percent.

"For now, we want to focus on making Bioswale at RTH Manggala Wanabakti because its area is wider with 10 meters on the left and 33 meters on the right with width one meter each," she conveyed, Tuesday (10/12).

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According to her, it is quite difficult to build Bioswale at RTH Manggala because the soil is hardening during excavation process thus the dredging can be only carried out until 60 centimeters depth.

Bioswale is built by digging soil, covering it with burlap sack. Then, pipe that has been perforated is installed and covered with sand and river stone. Later on , it must be covered with soil that has been mixed with compost or plant fertilizer.

"Bioswale is like a water filter that will drain the water into infiltration wells. We use materials in the surrounding parks since the materials are non-budgeted. Except for the pipes, because we need 10 PVC pipes," she said.

After that, she added, it will be continued with plants arrangement. Later, Bioswale location will be surrounded by protective trees and ornamental plants.

"For ornamental plants, we will plant green and red weeds, bird's nest fern (kadaka), papyrus, nephrolepis, iris, and crepe ginger," she mentioned.