Kupang (ANTARA News NTT) - Water is sent flowing into the Rotiklot dam to fill the newly completed dam in the district of Belu, East Nusa Tenggara before it is officially commissioned .
"It is not officially commissioned yet. We are only starting filling it with water," head of Center of riverside areas of Nusa Tenggara Timur, Agus Sosiawan told Antara news agency here on Thursday (13/12).
The Rotiklot dam is located in the village of Fatuketi, sub-district of Kakuluk Mesak, Belu district in the border area with Timor Leste.
The new dam has the capacity of holding 3.2 million cubic meters of water, Agus said, adding it would be able to irrigate 139 hectare of rice fields and 500 hectares of second crops in that area.
It was also designed to prevent flooding in downstream area of Ainiba and to supply standard water for local people and the port of Atapupu 40 liters per second.
The dam has been built by state owned construction companies PT Nindya Karya and PT Universal Suryaprima (KSO) with consultant PT Indra Karya (Persero), PT Patria Jasa Nusaprakarsa and PT Agra Pasca Rencana KSO.
The project was built at a cost of Rp470,535 million with fund from the 2015-2018 state budgets. It took 1,110 working days to completed the project.
The government has a target to build 60 dams from 2015 to 2019 to support its program to create self sufficiency in food.
