The government plans to build hydro power plants with a combined capacity of 7,000 megawatts in several parts of the country until 2020, Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto said.
“The hydro power plants will be built at several areas in Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi and Papua,” he said after opening a national seminar on large dams and an annual meeting of the Indonesian National Committee for Large Dams here on Wednesday.
He said the construction of the hydro power plants was part of efforts to use new and renewable energy to generate electricity.
The construction of the power plants would involve the government, state-owned companies and private companies, he said.
He said energy and water crises posed a challenge for all countries in the world to deal with.
He said the government was also planning to build dams to irrigate paddy fields, supply drinking water to households and industries in many areas in the country.
The dams that would be built until 2014 would be able to accommodate 1.5 billion cubic meters per year, he said.
To date, the country had a total of 284 dams capable of accommodating 12.9 billion cubic meters per year and 1,109 reservoirs capable of accommodating 0.1 billion cubic meters per year, he said.
