Government endorses Punclut project
Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung
Despite environmental concerns, the Bandung municipal administration has given the green light to the development of the Punclut conservation area in north Bandung, West Java.
Bandung Mayor Dada Rosada recently announced his administration had approved plans to develop an agro-tourism project on more than 100 hectares of land in Punclut. The project will include greenhouses and a jogging track.
Punclut can be reached via Jl. Ciumbeuleuit, which runs directly to Lembang. The area is crowded with tourists, both local and foreign, and residents shopping along the sidewalks and jogging around a track on weekends.
Hundreds of sidewalk vendors set up in the area, mostly selling vegetables, fruits and Sundanese specialties such as nasi timbel (rice wrapped in banana leaves). These vendors, who reportedly can make hundreds of millions of rupiah, apparently drew the interest of developers, who thought they could make even bigger profits by doing the same thing as the vendors, only on a larger scale.
Bandung Development Planning Agency head Tjetje Subrata said permits had been issued to at least three developers for the area. PT Dam Utama Sakti received a permit to develop 80 hectares, PT Mulya Sejati 30 hectares and PT Trigana will develop a 0.9 hectare plot of land.
"The developers obtained the permits in 2000 from the former mayor, Aa Tarmana, but the status of the land they will develop is still unclear. We will give them the opportunity to develop the land, but 80 percent of the Punclut area must be 'regreened' first," Tjetje told The Jakarta Post recently.
He said developing Punclut could help prevent further damage by squatters who build shanties in the area. However, he acknowledged that any development work could cause controversy because it would require the eviction of some residents.
He said an area of land occupied by eight community units of more than 1,700 families, or 7,500 residents, would have to be cleared. A large number of these residents do not possess land ownership certificates and most of them are living on state land, he claimed.
In order to avoid conflicts in the area of the planned Punclut development, the municipality is at the moment working out an agreement with several NGOs and residents.
The City Council also seems to have given the green light, if not enthusiastically, to the development plan. The head of the council's Commission D for residential and transportation affairs, Idris Yusuf Lubis, said: "Just let the developers handle it. The municipality is now overwhelmed and does not have sufficient funds."
He said the government could not afford to buy the entire plot of land and turn it into a conservation area because the city development budget this year -- 12 percent of the Rp 1 trillion (US$111 million) provincial budget -- was not sufficient.
However, the decision to entrust Punclut to developers has angered some residents in the area. Ida Farida, 40, a resident of Cipicung Girang, said she had given up talking about the plan. Since 1997, she has had her land ownership certificates revoked by the National Land Agency.
"They say that there will not be any development in the north of Bandung, including Punclut, but lately it seems that residents' land will be handed over to the developers," she said.
Sutiah, 36, a resident of Cipicung Hilir, said she did not care about the plan as long as she and her family were compensated for their house and land.
NGOs also are divided over the development plan. Tjetje claimed that many local NGOs had voiced support for the project. But an expert from the Sundanese Environmental and Observer Council, Sobirin, has gone on record with his objections.
He said that anyone planning to develop Punclut had to offer guarantees that they would reforest the area in order to preserve water resources in Bandung.
A 1995 study by Bandung Institute of Technology hydrologist Arwin Sabar found that only 30 percent to 40 percent of water catchment areas in northern Bandung were still functioning.