Former top official slams reclamation plans

JAKARTA (JP); A former deputy governor says that the ongoing reclamation project on the North Jakarta coastline will have disastrous effects on the city's ecology, resulting in a partial submergence of the capital.

Bun Yamin Ramto, deputy governor for economic and development affairs from 1984 until 1988, said on Sunday that the city administration should have realized that the profit obtained in selling the coast to a private company is nothing when compared with the environmental destruction that will be wrought by the reclamation project.

He also criticized the city council for approving the bill on the scheme. "I have no idea why the city council approved the bill," he said as quoted by the Kompas daily yesterday. He added that the council had, effectively, traded environmental damage for money.

"When I was a deputy governor I refused an application to carry out coastal land reclamation," he said.

Bun Yamin noted that Jakarta Bay is the mouth for 13 rivers which flow through the capital city. When the reclamation project has been completed, the rivers will be obstructed and their waters will overflow, he predicted, flooding surrounding areas. The waves in the bay will also be higher, causing tidal flooding, he added.

The city administration is now cooperating with a private company to reclaim a 2,700-hectare area along a 32-kilometer stretch of Jakarta's northern coastline. The reclamation project requires 200 million cubic meters of sand and mud.

The first stage of the project, involving an area of 500 ha, is already underway in East Ancol. Siti Hutami E. Adiningsih, president of PT Manggala Krida Yudha, the developer in charge, has said that 75 percent of the developed area will belong to the company, while the remaining 25 percent will be made available for use by state-owned PT Pelindo II, which is engaged in the development of a cargo terminal in North Jakarta.

Bun Yamin said the reclamation project is totally against the 1980 city plan for Jakarta. It had been agreed that the sand and mud in the coastal area should be dredged to enable the rivers flow into the sea more easily, he said. "We had agreed to preserve the structure of the coast so as not to disturb the ecosystem," he added.

He said the 1980 decision was based on experts' studies. He said the approval of the reclamation plan amounted to a breach of the agreement reached earlier.

"Many experts have voiced concerns over the reclamation plan, yet the councilors approved the bill all the same," he said.

Bun Yamin, who is now rector of the National Institute of Science and Technology in Jakarta, also charged the city administration with inconsistency in its development planning. "We can see that it from the flouting of the city's development zoning plan," he said. (sur)