Finding a solution to Jakarta's lack of adequate housing
Finding a solution to Jakarta's lack of adequate housing
From a center of intensive agricultural activity, Jakarta
graduated to manufacturing and is redefining itself as the
financial and commercial capital of Indonesia.
For decades, city planners have been involved in housing
programs to cope with the growth of urban populations while
kampong improvement activities are in full swing to improve
conditions in existing areas.
To accommodate the growing number of people belonging to the
international community, Jakarta has expanded immensely,
especially toward the south, to provide expensive housing for all
those looking for a home away from home.
However, much of the city remains a patchwork of different
kampongs that are veritable villages within the big village of
Jakarta, a home to many Indonesians who migrated from the rural
areas of Java as well as other parts of the archipelago.
Jakarta's kampongs have in recent times multiplied into
self-contained urban villages with names that reflect the origins
of the residents; for example, Kampong Bali, Kampong Makassar and
Kampong Melayu. These kampongs are generally overcrowded, noisy
and consist of extremely modest dwellings that are placed
extremely close to each other.
But across a narrow lane, just a stone's throw away from a
congested kampong, are vast areas of greenery and naked land
where villas, which often accommodate a single family, usually
stand.
Despite such glaring disparity, Jakarta has avoided the
bulldozing of most kampongs unlike other developing countries.
Instead, a kampong improvement program exists, and although it
takes its time to implement changes, it has made life somewhat
easier for many in the city's worst slums.
The idea is to use the support of residents to clean up life
in a kampong instead of getting the population to relocate
to new homes.
Meanwhile, the city is also being converted into a megalopolis
called Jabotabek, an acronym of Jakarta, Bogor in the south,
Tangerang in the west and Bekasi in the east, which are to be
included in the capital.
Jabotabek is planned as an immense city of more than 7,500
square kilometers, which will absorb the adjoining population
centers.
It is hoped that the plan will relieve the pressure on the
central core, where 90 percent of the population is now living,
by reducing the concentration of people to 63 percent by 2005.
Through various incentive schemes, new industrial and
residential projects are being relegated to Jabotabek's
peripheral areas.
Traffic pressure is expected to ease this way and expansion
only to the south of Jakarta will also be halted in the long run.
It is hoped that new residential areas will become as popular
as the southern spheres of Kemang and Pondok Indah and industries
and office complexes will also choose to station themselves in
the eastern and western parts of the capital city.
Despite the belief that the construction of high-rise
apartments is not the only solution for low-income housing
problems as people here traditionally like living close to the
ground, the city does have an ambitious plan to provide more and
more low-cost housing of very simple accommodation to the
sprawling mass of slum dwellers.
Rumah Susun, the high-rise housing complex in Pejompongan, may
not be a palace but it is considered a haven by many residents of
former slums.
For 30 years Darmy had lived by the intercity railway line
along with hundreds of rural immigrants who had no access to
toilets or running water.
Now she lives in a tiled room fitted with electricity.
In the early 1990s this slum area was burned down and three
residential blocks, each nine stories tall with 30 apartments on
every floor, were constructed.
Each of the 21-square-meter accommodations with a balcony,
kitchen, attached toilet and bathroom was sold for Rp 12 million.
For those like Darmy, who were brought up in tin shanties, to
wake up each morning at Rumah Susun is indeed a new dawn.
However, Andri Sutandinata, a property development expert told
The Jakarta Post that if a glut in a certain kind of housing is
to be prevented than developers should first find out what
customers want before committing to mass construction.
Andri is against forcing an imported lifestyle on residents
here who may not be able to afford all the luxuries available at
certain serviced apartments here.
The lesson learned from the economic crisis is that the
property market must indulge in less speculation in the future.
"We must start to build homes for real customers and not
investors," warned Andri. (Mehru Jaffer)