Fisherfolk to occupy new dwellings

Fisherfolk to occupy new dwellings

Leony Aurora, Jakarta

For an area that will be vacated within one day, Kali Adem in
Muara Karang district, North Jakarta, was awfully quiet. Most of
the inhabitants preferred to sleep amid the Friday afternoon
heat. Nobody was packing.

"Yes, we're going to move on Saturday," Rawut, a member of the
Traditional Fishermen Union (SNT), whose house was demolished by
the North Jakarta administration last October, told The Jakarta
Post on Friday.

The 44-year-old fisherman does not have many things to pack.
His wife, four children, and most of his belongings went with the
first group, who moved back to their hometown Indramayu in West
Java two months ago. Some 100 other families, who were left
behind, will follow on Saturday evening.

Each family will live in a 21-square-meter house on a two-
hectare plot of land in Song Beach, Indramayu. They will have to
pay monthly installments of Rp 90,000 (US$9.54) to the
municipality. Rawut estimates that the payments will continue for
10 years.

The complex was built especially for the families of fishermen
that belong to the union -- partly in recognition of their
resistance to the evictions.

Public order officers evicted more than 1,000 families and
demolished their stilt houses on the banks of Muara Angke river.
Members of the union are the minority, who stubbornly rejected Rp
500,000 as compensation for their houses, which most families had
lived in for more than 20 years.

"I'll be back within one week," said Rawut. The fishermen
cannot make a living yet in Indramayu, as they need bigger boats
to sail the deeper sea in that area, and different equipment to
catch the different kinds of fish there. For the time being, they
will live on their boats, just as they have done since the
evictions, while their wives and children try to adjust to their
new lives in Song. "My house will be a place to rest," said
Rawut.

M. Razak, a student of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, who
assisted the union, said that, possibly, the Indramayu
municipality could help with the boats. "We are still discussing
the options, including the cultivation of seaweed and green
oysters," said Razak.

He also expressed concern that Song still lacked necessary
infrastructure and services, such as regular garbage collection,
street lights, and an elementary school.

Tarminah, 40, has two children in elementary school in Kali
Adem. "The closest school to Song is still too far away," she
said. For the sake of her children's education, she will return
to Jakarta once the holiday is over.

A mother of eight cited another reason for returning to the
capital. "What am I to do in Song? Here at least I can collect
plastic," she said, pointing to a white sack full of plastic
bottles.

For one such sack, which takes three days to collect, she
receives Rp 15,000. "Not bad for the kids' pocket money."

But despite all the problems, the future Indramayu residents
feel positive about the relocation. "The house may not be much --
half of the walls are not brick, just woven bamboo," said Rawut.
"But, at least, we can sleep in a house of our own."