Development and flooding

Development and flooding

Several years now the debate on development in Bopunjur (Bogor,
Puncak and Cianjur) has been going on without any apparent
solution. In the meantime building construction has continued
with the support of the local administration. We can now find
many real estate developments sprouting up everywhere around
Bopunjur, which is supposed to be a water catchment for Jakarta
to prevent flooding in the capital city.

A similar situation is happening in Lembang, north of Bandung,
which sooner or later will threaten the city of Bandung with
greater floods, especially because Bandung is like a bowl
surrounded by so many mountains and hills. Even Ciater is now
becoming a target of the greedy developers.

In December 1995 I wrote in Your Letters section about the
spectacular development of apartments in Jakarta that could be
considered as excessive and too expensive, with the potential to
create bad debts, among other problems. Those apartments also
share in making Jakarta vulnerable to uncontrollable flooding.
This is worsened by the unfriendly Java sea, which in recent
years has had higher tides than usual.

It is also interesting to take a look around the Cibubur area
on the left side of the Jagorawi toll road when heading for
Bogor. It will soon be crowded with real estate developments and
other types of dwellings, especially now that a new road is
available to Cianjur. I remember that in 1970 this area was
declared as a water catchment for Jakarta.

What has happened with all those plans? How is the road to the
Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Cengkareng being affected by the
elimination of all those creeks along the North Jakarta coast for
the Kapuk project and golf courses? Who will be held responsible
for all the suffering experienced by so many people going to and
from the airport? Is there anybody that can tell us who the
person responsible is?

But once again, all those projects would not have materialized
had the local and central administrations been firm in upholding
their development concepts (if they were ever available). So it
is not only the fault of the greedy developers and the rich, but
also that of the local and central administrations.

First of all we have to check again whether we really have a
master plan. We also have to ensure that everybody abide by
existing regulations, which is possible only if there is reliable
supervision and coordination. Any necessary adjustments to the
planning and regulations must be jointly discussed with all
related departments. Civil servants be guard against letting
themselves be tempted by money coming from developers, or other
sources, that may lead to the deviation of plans or concepts.

Further development in Bopunjur has been banned by the
government. However I am skeptical as to whether this ban can be
effected to the letter because of greed. People are ready to
block the execution of the ban. Moreover, I see the ban as an
action by impulse, and not a conceptual one. Well I hope the
Indonesian people, the government, the developers, the
conglomerates and wealthy individuals, will realize that this is
a serious problem and too risky to be tackled without any firm
concept. May all of us learn quickly and correctly from our not
so good past in this matter, and take proper action accordingly
for the sake of us all and of our descendants.

H.W. PIENANDORO

Cimanggis, Bogor,

West Java