Minister of PUPR Tells Secrets to Develop Environment-Based Infrastructure

Jakarta – Minister of Public Works and Housing (PUPR) Basuki Hadimuldjono attended Sarwono Prawirohardjo XIII Award from Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI). Basuki also gave a scientific speech regarding environment-based infrastructure development.

He explained that environment-based infrastructure development and sustainable must have a principal. Such as, adopting local environment and cultural condition, paying attention to environmental carrying capacity and resource preservation.

“Optimizing local human and natural resource, bio-diversity. Also, optimizing people’s participation and advancing technology innovation,” Basuki said at the auditorium of LIPI, Jakarta, as reported by okezone.com.

He stressed, another important thing that is always considered in the development of environmentally friendly infrastructure is the use of local materials and adapting local cultural wealth into infrastructure design.

For example, several areas in Kalimantan does not have enough and qualified broken stone. To resolve this condition, several local material-based technologies for infrastructure development were created.

"The use of asphalt base layer sandbase as a road body foundation. Light dumps with sand as the main material for building roads on soft soil. Hot mix lawele granular asbuton and co/d paving hot mix asbuton for hardening the road. Palm tree trunks as a house-building material,” he explained.

Besides that, he continued, adopting the local culture and condition in building infrastructure is very important so that the development could be accepted by local people and increase the infrastructure benefits.

“As an illustration, large rivers in Kalimantan since a long time ago is used as the main transportation mode. This function will be disturbed the moment we build a waterwork across the river. Amandit river in South Kalimantan traditionally is used by the local people to transport crops,” he said.