“Govt urged to halt dam filling over mounting dissent”, 04 July 2015

A coalition of NGOs has urged the government to postpone the filling of the Jatigede dam in Sumedang regency, West Java, slated to begin next month, until they resolve thousands of public complaints submitted by local residents who are struggling with the social impacts of the reservoir project… The [West Java Development Finance Comptroller] agency, however, has so far failed to settle any of the complaints,” advocacy team member Rizky Ramdani said recently. Rizky said the complaints fell into six categories, with 5,687 complaints regarding errors in land measurement topping the list. The second most common issue, raised in 3,646 complaints, was a lack of any compensation payment, followed by 2,024 complaints about wrongly classified assets in the compensation process…The Jatigede dam forms part of the government’s development priority plan and is considered crucial to ensuring Indonesia’s food security…