Jakarta administration sells lake to private developers
Jakarta administration sells lake to private developers
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city administration revealed on Monday that it had sold
one of 22 small lakes in the Greater Jakarta area to private
developers.
A hearing between officials of the City Public Works Agency
and the City Council Commission D for development affairs
revealed that the city administration sold Situ Rawa Badung in
Pulo Gadung, East Jakarta, to developers who are constructing a
business center in the area.
"The lake was 'sold' to private developers and the city
administration was also given shares in the business center that
is being developed in the area," said an official of the agency,
Andi Baso M.
According to Andi, an agreement between the city
administration and several developers including PT Nusa Kirana
and PT Metropolitan Kencana, the five hectares of Situ Rawa
Badung, is to be reduced to just one hectare, while the rest is
to be developed into a business area.
Several legislators also questioned the conversion of areas
close to lakes into housing or golf courses, such as the
development of a housing project in the area around Situ Rorotan
in North Jakarta.
Deputy head of the Public Works Agency Fodly Misbach said that
the remaining lakes in Jakarta and its satellite cities were in
poor condition.
He cited Situ Rorotan, which originally covered 50 hectares,
but it is now only around 5 hectares; Situ Babagan in South
Jakarta, which has been reduced from 23 hectares to 17 hectares;
Situ Mangga Bolong, also in South Jakarta, which is down from 15
hectares to 12 hectares.
"Many others have become open space or turned into rice
fields, and some are illegally occupied by squatters," Fodly told
The Jakarta Post.
Fodly said the city administration was powerless in handling
the squatters, saying that squatters in the area around Situ
Mangga Bolong had once demanded Rp 240 million in compensation
when they were told to leave.
He admitted that the Greater Jakarta area only had 720
hectares of water catchment areas or around 2.8 percent of the
total area of the capital.
"This is far below from the ideal figure, which should be
around 8 percent," he said.
City planning experts had earlier said that the disappearing
lakes contributed to worsening the floods in the capital as the
water, which should have been intercepted by the lakes, now
flooded other areas.
Other factors that have contributed to exacerbate the floods
included the conversion of greenbelts along riverbanks, swamp
areas as well as protected mangrove forests, into residential and
business developments. Most of them were built after the
administration had reduced the green areas under the revision of
the city masterplan in 1995.
Among those were Plaza Senayan shopping mall, Hotel Mulia,
Pondok Indah Hospital, Sunter industrial zone, housing at Pantai
Indah Kapuk and Taman Anggrek condominium and shopping center.