Jakarta city of cars is bursting at its seams

Jakarta city of cars is bursting at its seams

By Rita A. Widiadana and Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): Start looking for environs far from Jakarta if you cannot stand winding traffic jams, being squashed cheek to jowl with others on fetid public buses and pollution which ranks among the worst on the globe.

With 9.8 million people at night and 12 million during the day, Jakarta is literally bursting at its seams. Yet its myriad problems do not dissuade the hundreds of thousands of people who come to the city to try their luck. True, there are great working opportunities in the metropolis, but the job seekers far outnumber the job openings.

Aris Ananta, a professor at the University of Indonesia's Demographic Institute, says urban dwellers now have ample choices to work in the city's outskirts where industry has grown rapidly, including Tangerang in the west and Bekasi in the east. Low- skilled laborers including maids also find lucrative jobs in new housing complexes in the neighboring satellite towns.

"It is just a natural selection process in the employment world in such a metropolis," Ananta said. "In the future, Jakarta will only be home to more sophisticated industries which require highly skilled workers."

He predicted that people may find the city no longer attractive, and will move to the outskirts or other areas to seek a better quality of life. This would probably benefit Jakarta by curbing the urbanization rate.

This is what is actually happening now and the trend is likely to continue, Ananta said. The most recent study of the Demographic Institute, to be released in August, reveals that the city's population growth rate as well as mortality rate has been on the decline since l990. The urbanization growth rate is also lower.

The growth rate dropped from 3.9 percent in 1980 to 2.4 percent in 1990. In 1995 it decreased further to 1.9 percent, he said.

The urbanized population of Greater Jakarta grew at an average annual rate of 5.9 percent from l980-l990.

The combined population of Greater Jakarta is now put at about 15 million. The population is expected to triple by the 2020.

The city center used to have a high population density but it has declined since in the 1990s. According to World Bank data, density in Central Jakarta averaged around 42,000 residents per square kilometer in l980. But in the l990s, with the declining of population growth rate, the city's density fell to only 22,000 per square kilometer. Part of the explanation for the drop lies in the large scale land clearance for the construction of office buildings.

Density changes have direct and dramatic consequences for urban development. High density accentuates negative spatial externalities such as the noise and waste byproducts of land users, as they directly impinge on neighbors. As Jakarta's central area densities decline, some environmental problems may be alleviated.

"Due to the high mobility and stressful conditions in urban Jakarta, more and more people want fewer children and are having a small family," Ananta said.

He said chances to create more qualified citizens in term of education and better health care access was greater when people have a small number of offspring.

"Compared to other cities in Indonesia, Jakarta will be ready to supply highly skilled human resources in facing the 21th century," Ananta said.

Better health care and widespread access of city residents create their own problems. Jakarta residents will likely live longer, and the graying of the city will be a dilemma in itself.

Pollution

Despite the city's improving facilities, urban dwellers sometimes bring problems upon themselves. A penchant for high living, residing in polluted areas and putting stressful job deadline before family life may lead both senior and productive citizens to suffer from health problem.

Pollution can cause high blood pressure, respiratory symptoms and affect the intellectual development of newborns.

"It will be alarming if Jakarta has an ailing population, as it will certainly reduce productivity and increase health costs," he said.

He said Jakartans spend too many hours commuting to and from work. "It is really a waste of money, time and energy."

To ease stress and to avoid traffic congestion, Ananta suggested people start working from home. "Due to rapid technological development, people can work from their residences. This system is very popular in the West. Jakartans should consider this idea profitable and viable."

Traffic

Traffic looms as the city administration's albatross, one of the biggest headaches they face.

The spread of satellite cities in Jakarta's neighboring towns of Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi has further complicated traffic and transportation problems, as the majority of their inhabitants commute each day.

Many efforts have been implemented by the city administration to solve lingering traffic problems. The three-in-one regulation, applied in morning hours on some streets, stipulates that a private vehicle should carry at least three people, including the driver. New roads and flyovers are being constructed at a furious pace.

Jakarta is expected to have eight more flyovers by the end of this year. The city now has 17 flyovers. The long-awaited Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project is scheduled to begin next year. The MRT could transport from 40,000 to 50,000 people between Blok M and Kota per hour.

Governor Surjadi Soedirdja admits that the city administration is unlikely to solve the chronic traffic problems in the coming years, as building of transportation networks cannot keep apace with new vehicles coming onto the roads.

The city now has 2,165,200 vehicles, while the total length of the capital roads reach only 5,907.95 kilometers.

Development

Budhy Tjahjati S. Soegijoko, who chairs the board of the Urban Regional Development Institute, said a complete overhaul of the city's public transportation system was the only option for Jakarta if wants to maintain its position as a center of administration and commerce.

A plan for Greater Jakarta's transportation system is urgently needed to ensure the integration of various transportation modes.

"It is very hard now to separate Jakarta from Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi," Budhy explained. "The three neighboring towns have virtually been incorporated into the capital city as a result of Jakarta's rapid expansion."

She revealed that development cooperation programs between Jakarta and neighboring West Java had not proceeded as smoothly as expected because of conflicting interests, especially in the transportation sector.

The city is now revising the l985/2005 city plan, which will become the l985/2010 plan, in the hope that it would be the facilitator of better transportation coordination between Jakarta and its surrounding areas.

Water

Jakarta is also scrambling, and presently failing, to provide clean water services to all its residents.

To maintain an adequate standard of livability, Jakarta needs ample supplies of clean water. The city's water catchment areas, however, lie outside city boundaries in the province of West Java, where they are threatened by the unregulated construction of villas and housing estates.

Djoko Sujarto, a professor of urban planning at Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), said that these new satellite cities were once productive farmland that had been connected into an irrigation network.

The professor explained the new townships have disturbed the ecological balance of the surrounding areas, because they eliminated zones previously used for water catchment and are polluting water and air.

More areas are prone to floods. There is also overexploitation at quarrying sites as developers excavate materials needed for construction, he said.

Uniform aims and cooperation between the municipality and neighboring West Java areas are needed to prevent further environment destruction, Djoko added.

Wiyogo Atmodarminto, former governor of Jakarta, said cooperation had been too weak because each region held its own concept of development. As a result, development of West Java regions bordering Jakarta, encompassing Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi or known by the acronym Jabotabek, have not been compatible with the capital's development.

"Pak Surjadi or any other Jakarta governor would find it hard to implement coordination with the West Java authorities," Wiyogo said.

The administration of neighboring cities should support the development of Jakarta as the republic's capital, he said.

In l990, the Greater Jakarta Coordination Board was established as the borders between Jakarta and its neighboring towns disappeared because of the expansion of the Indonesian capital. Unfortunately, the board has been ineffective.

Former minister Emil Salim said Greater Jakarta was the most important area to be considered for a higher level of management in comparison to other provinces.

To enable better management and services of the capital, Emil suggested one governor for Jabotabek holding ministerial authority. Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. rejected Emil's proposal as "something which is not so viable" in the near future.

Despite Yogie's pessimism, Emil's idea was applauded by some of the country's leading urban planners, including M. Danisworo, chairman of the city's Urban Design Review Boards.

Danisworo agreed that Jakarta should at least be governed by a junior level minister who reports to the president and has access to the cabinet, national utilities and public services, such as the state-owned railway company.

"The condition of the sprawling metropolis and its new satellite towns will deteriorate if preparations for central planning do not start immediately," he said.

Despite its 470 years in existence, Jakarta is still burdened by a magnitude of problems confronting it today and in the future. These dilemmas beg the question whether the city of Jakarta is ready to play a greater role as an international growth center in Southeast Asia, one of the world's most dynamic regions.