Barren land grows by 200,000 ha a year
Barren land grows by 200,000 ha a year
JAKARTA (JP): Unproductive land, which mostly consists of soil unfit for agriculture, conservation or water catchment purposes, has been blamed for the floods which occur in the country every year.
The Ministry of Forestry's Director General of Reforestation and Land Rehabilitation Hendarsun Suryasanusiputra told a hearing with the House of Representatives yesterday that the total area of unproductive land in Indonesia reached 33.9 million hectares in the beginning of the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan in April, 1994.
Hendarsun said most of the unproductive land was located upstream of 39 of the country's major rivers.
"Environmental damages cause about 200,000 hectares of infertile land every year, while the rate of land rehabilitation is 400,000 hectares annually," he told the House's commission for forestry and agriculture.
Hendarsun said the barren land resulted from overburdening an area beyond its sustainable capacity.
Responding to questions from reporters, Hendarsun cited the conversion of water catchment zones in the areas south of Jakarta -- covering Bogor, Puncak and Cianjur -- into residential areas and commercial centers, including golf courses, as an example of the cause of land degradation.
The conversion of water catchment zones, he said, was the main cause of the floods which hit Jakarta over the last two months.
In 1986, Hendarsun said, 8 percent of the Bogor-Puncak-Cianjur area was still covered by forests, 5.21 percent by plantations (tree crops), 25.06 percent by mixed plantations, 12.34 percent by rain-fed dry crops, 25 percent by rice fields and 22.5 percent by settlements (residential areas).
No figures
He did not give the latest figures on land use in the Bogor- Puncak-Cianjur area.
Hendarsun said it was very important to maintain water catchments because only 9.4 percent of this area actually had a sloped contour while the other 90 percent was flat land.
"This means that if the spatial planning for that area had been strictly enforced, no floods would have happened. The area's natural contour would work to prevent flooding," he said.
To solve the problem, Hendarsun said, areas with higher elevations should be rehabilitated through reforestation.
Those on the lowland, besides being reforested, should be guarded by catchment wells built by developers of buildings in the area.
The National Development Planning Board said last month it had earmarked around Rp 12 billion (US$5.4 million) of the 1996/1997 budget for flood control projects in the greater Jakarta area.
The money would be used to fund short-term programs, including dredging, enlarging, and cleaning Jakarta's 13 rivers of rubbish, and also removing illegal squatters.
The January and February floods in Jakarta killed more than 30 people, forced thousands of families to flee their homes, and caused traffic gridlock in various areas of the city. The floods also cut off hundreds of thousands of telephone lines and power supply to many households.
Officials said the January and February floods in Jakarta caused almost Rp 90 billion in material losses. (pwn)