Rotterdam and Jakarta will be exchanging knowledge about urban water management and the effects of climate change for another three years.
This was announced today, during Prime Minister Rutte’s economic mission to Indonesia where a new partnership agreement was signed.
The exchange program, which is called ‘ Dutch Training & Exposure Program Rotterdam – DKI Jakarta ’, is jointly run by Jakarta, the Municipality of Rotterdam, Nuffic-Neso Indonesia, the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta, and the Delfland Water Authority.
Van Oord is joining as a new partner to share knowledge in the fields of land reclamation and dredging.
Since 2014, 24 young professionals from Indonesia have been serving a traineeship and researching specific water-related issues in the Netherlands.
They gathered knowledge from the Municipality of Rotterdam and the Delfland Water Authority about how Rotterdam manages water and is preparing itself for the effects of climate change. They then applied this knowledge to the situation in Jakarta.
Jakarta is dealing with soil subsidence that is partly due to the fact that drinking water is extracted by drawing it from ground water. In some places, the soil is subsiding by 15 centimeters per year and has dipped below sea level. Jakarta is dealing with the threat of floods from both rivers and the sea. Knowledge of daily water management practice in Rotterdam may help get the problems in Jakarta under control.
Seven students studying water management at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences spent their graduate internships working on projects that the trainees began upon their return to Jakarta.
Dutch specialists are in Jakarta this week to advise Indonesian professionals about the implementation of their projects. The subjects of the projects include land reclamation, improving the maintenance and management of pumping stations and canals to prevent flooding and developing a multifunctional dike modelled after the Dakpark in Rotterdam.