Minister of Public Works, Dody Hanggodo, has hinted at slow implementation of Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 2/2025 on the Acceleration of Irrigation Network Rehabilitation due to overlapping and inaccurate data provided by regional administrations.

“We are renovating regional irrigation networks while simultaneously collecting data, because in many cases the data both exists and doesn’t exist,” Dody told a media conference at the ministry’s headquarters in Jakarta on Friday, October 31, 2025.

He cited that much of the data submitted by regional governments does not reflect actual field conditions.

“We received data from local governments, but once we checked them on site, they often overlapped or even sometimes the irrigation channel no longer exists or has even been relocated,” Dody said.

The minister added that the lack of reliable data has effectively doubled the workload of his ministry. “Ideally, if the data were accurate, we would only need to proceed with renovation. But now we have to do both: mapping and rehabilitating,” he cited.

Dody said that the presidential instruction was issued by President Prabowo Subianto to address long-standing fragmentation in irrigation management. Similar to road infrastructure, irrigation networks in Indonesia are divided into national, provincial, and regency or municipal responsibilities.

“The central government could never touch irrigation networks outside the national category, assuming they were already rehabilitated by local governments,” he said.

“But when we checked on the field, many regional irrigation systems were damaged and had not been maintained for years,” he noted.

He added that President Prabowo considers irrigation development a key national priority.

“Fortunately, the President understands that irrigation is a fundamental issue,” Dody said.

Irrigation rehabilitation target

It has been decided that the implementation of Inpres No. 2/2025 will be carried out in three phases. The first phase includes the rehabilitation of 280,000 hectares of regional irrigation networks.

“In the first stage, we will rehabilitate while simultaneously collecting accurate data for future planning,” Dody said.

The minister emphasized that improving data accuracy will be crucial to ensure more efficient planning and execution of future irrigation projects.