Administration has bold plans for city slums

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration is setting up a program with the State Ministry of Public Housing to rejuvenate slum areas, especially those on state land on riverbanks, Governor Sutiyoso said over the weekend.

"The city is currently starting to list slum areas which are badly in need of rejuvenation. We also plan to move residents living along the riverbanks to better places," he said after the grand opening of a shopping mall in West Jakarta Saturday.

Over the last five years, the municipality has run a program to build apartments for low-income Jakartans and relocate riverbank inhabitants.

"We want to complete the city's program in eradicating slum areas.

"We want to lift up their lives. Living on the riverbanks is dangerous. The areas are prone to erosion and flooding, particularly in the rainy season," Sutiyoso said.

The areas are squalid, he added.

"They live in shacks. They litter, eat and drink, all in the same place.

"It's a sick way of life and is definitely bad for their children's health and education."

The plan was revealed when State Minister of Public Housing Akbar Tandjung announced at the same occasion that his office had urged developers to help rejuvenate settlements, with particular focus on those built on state property.

"Many settlements in Jakarta are violating the land use and city spatial plans. Slums areas are also built on state-owned land. But we can't just evict the residents," the minister said.

The government is planning to build more low-cost houses and apartments in Greater Jakarta, which are also conveniently located along the city's train routes, he said.

"One of the pilot projects is the Parung Panjang housing complex in Bogor, which was inaugurated by Vice President Try Sutrisno last month," Tandjung said.

Parung can be reached by train from Tanah Abang station in Central Jakarta.

There are 35,000 low-cost houses built in the housing complex, in which 95 percent of the residents work in Jakarta, Tandjung said.

"They commute to work everyday by train. The vice president and I took a ride from Tanah Abang to Parung, which took about 45 minutes."

Tandjung said he was awaiting a detailed report from the municipality before he set any target for the project.

"Basically, we are just implementing the Presidential Instruction No.5/1990 about the rejuvenation of slum areas built on a state property," he said, adding that his office would soon conduct a meeting to discuss the plan further.

Land prices in Jakarta are too expensive, he said.

"That is why we have no choice but to move human settlements around Jakarta to areas where the price is much cheaper, and at the same time provide them with transportation facilities."

The city administration has developed three programs on slums; slum eradication, kampong rejuvenation and a combination of the two to create better settlements for Jakartans.

Eradication of slum areas entails building low-cost apartments on slum sites. The kampong rejuvenation program improves the quality of the environment without evicting residents, while the combination plan builds apartments to fit the needs of the social class of the prospective inhabitants.

University of Indonesia sociologist Paulus Wirutomo, who is involved in developing the city's strategic planning, said the issue of human settlements constituted endless work.

"I think the municipality is better to take the second and third approaches because they are more appropriate, and they can reduce potential social unrest which may be caused by evictions."

Tandjung said his office, together with the municipality, would consider all alternatives before making a decision.

"Don't worry, we will take all options into consideration. Whatever the decision, it will be made based on the interest of the people." (07)