Sorry if the above headline and photoshop misled you. Unfortunately, Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama is not, in fact, starting up a Jedi Academy in Jakarta.
So what is the JEDI Project? Well it’s definitely not as sci-fi cool as anything from “Star Wars”, but it is a very important project that could greatly improve the lives of Jakartans in the near future.
JEDI in this case stands for “Jakarta Emergency Dredging Initiative”, and it’s a project aimed at mitigating the risk of flooding in the capital.
Basically, the JEDI Project involves systematically dredging Jakarta’s 13 major rivers of garbage and debris so that they can flow smoothly and prevent water from building up in flood-prone areas during times of heavy rain. It was started in December 2013 but is still far from complete.
The Jakarta Government is working together with the World Bank on the JEDI Project, with the government’s Ministry of Public Works responsible for dredging eight rivers while the World Bank is responsible for the other five.
Recently, Ahok asked the World bank to accelerate their work on project, which is not surprising given that Jakarta is just about at the peak of rainy season once again.
“We have asked the World Bank to accelerate the JEDI Project as there are as many as 1,058 junctions [which still need to be dredged] that are spread out throughout Jakarta,” Ahok said at City Hall yesterday as quoted by Antara.
Ahok said the JEDI Project was a very important part of protecting Jakarta from the evil Sith threat of flooding, which is why it is so important to implement as fast as possible.
“In this way, flooding can be controlled and water can recede faster. Hence, we ask that the project be carried out more quickly,” Ahok said.
We hope that the Force will be with Ahok so that his administration and the World Bank will be able to complete the JEDI Project as soon as possible.
And sorry again if you felt misled to click on this story, but how else were we going to get you to check out a relatively boring but still very important story about river dredging?
