Jakarta (VNA) - Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto has announced that the country is ready for the construction of the Giant Sea Wall National Strategic Project along the north coast of Java (Pantura) to protect 50 million people from rising sea levels.
At a plenary cabinet session on October 21, President Prabowo explained that the construction of a 535-kilometre-long giant sea wall is the government's solution to addressing the sea level rise of around 5 centimeters per year due to the impact of climate change.
The President said the imminent threat of climate change could endanger 60% of the national industry located on the north coast of Java. Productive rice fields, which serve as the nation's food barn, could also be at risk without the sea wall, he added.
He emphasised that this step represents the state's responsibility to protect the people and the nation's strategic assets.
President Prabowo explained that the construction of the sea wall project has been in the planning stages of the National Planning Agency (Bappenas) since 1995. The project is one of the Prabowo administration's national strategic programmes (PSN) to protect coastal areas from tidal flooding and the impacts of climate change.
Project financing, estimated at a minimum of 80 billion USD, will focus on the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme./.
