Aussie expert proposes waterfront project

JAKARTA (JP): A senior Australian urban planning expert has underlined the need for the Jakarta city administration to implement the proposed waterfront project as a means of alleviating the burdens of urbanization.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post Tuesday, Sonja Lyneham, the principal of Planning Workshop International (PWI), said the influx of people into the city is so huge that the cities resources had to be exploited for optimum utility.

"They cannot allow this waterfront area to be under-utilized -- it is an asset that has not been realized," she said.

Earlier this year the City Council agreed to adopt a plan for the development of the waterfront area in North Jakarta which includes the reclamation of land from the city.

The city has thus begun working closely with PWI to draw up a blue print for the intended development.

PWI is one of Australia's oldest and largest planning and urban design companies. Based in Sydney, the company is responsible for the successful development of Darling harbor in New South Wales and the revitalization of the Kuching waterfront area in Malaysia.

In Jakarta the company has also been involved with the planned development of the Sudirman Central Business District (CBD).

The site of the waterfront was inspected on Monday by visiting New South Wales Premier John Fahey after signing a sister- province accord with Jakarta Governor Surjadi Soedirdja.

Sonja explained that the arrangement between Jakarta and New South Wales would provide an umbrella for cooperation. This cooperation would facilitate bringing in New South Wales' experts from the government and the private sector to tackle the job.

"These are not projects where you can use inexperienced people...it requires top personnel," she said.

The waterfront project will involve the reclamation from the sea of about 2,000 hectares of land along a 32-kilometer coastline in North Jakarta.

The project also involves an elaborate plan which in two- decades will establish residential areas and a new CBD in the Sunda Kelapa area.

"It is a waterfront city. ...Jakarta's waterfront should be its front door, not its back door," Sonja said responding to criticism leveled against the project.

She pointed out that in the future the project can, "turn the whole edge of the waterfront into a vital and interesting urban space." (mds)