Jakarta needs more green areas

Adianto P. Simamora and Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

While shopping centers and high-rise buildings are sprouting up all over Jakarta, green spaces, which are essential to enhance the quality of life in the capital, are apparently getting more difficult to find.

While many of them have disappeared thanks to property development projects, the Jakarta administration does not seem interested to replace the lost ones or expand the existing ones.

While the administration has proudly announced its promotional slogan Enjoy Jakarta, the city's sidewalks, where visitors and city residents are supposed to walk comfortably in the open air to enjoy the city, have been occupied by motorcyclists and sidewalk vendors.

"I think the Jakarta administration has to start developing adequate pedestrian space with shady trees. This will give the public a comfortable area to walk," said Marc Peeters, a Belgian who has been living here since 1977.

The lack of green space has made Peeters, who works at a telecommunication company here, reluctant to stroll around the city on the weekends.

"For me, the best place in Jakarta is my home," said Peeters who lives in a green area close to the Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta.

Peeters, who is married to a Javanese woman, used to walk around the city, until after he fell into a hole on a sidewalk.

"Since then, I rarely walk around the city. Aside from it being unsafe, the traffic is very heavy," he said.

A similar opinion was voiced by Poonam Sagar, an Indian who has been living here for 14 years. She described the overcrowded city as the complete opposite of the nearest foreign capital, Singapore.

"It is a big change coming from Singapore to here. It feels like being transported back in time. There are long queues at the airport and money-guzzling officials, as well," she said.

Not only foreigners feel distressed living in the city, so do locals, particularly the disabled.

A survey among the disabled in 2002 revealed that Jakarta is not a friendly place for the disabled as the majority of buildings and public places in the city do not provide adequate facilities for them.

The lack of facilities means the disabled have no access to public places, the sidewalks or public transportation.

The uncontrolled growth in the number of cars and motorbikes has made the city even more crowded. We often see motorbikes traveling on the sidewalks at high speed in an attempt to overtake cars on the heavily congested roads.

In anticipation of the growing number of vehicles, the Jakarta administration plans to build up to 15 routes for mass transportation, including TransJakarta public buses and the monorail. The new public transportation modes are expected to encourage the public to use public transportations rather than their cars. This in turn is expected to reduce the number of vehicles in the city and thus reduce traffic congestion.

"I really dislike the increasing piles of rubbish and the bad traffic," said Poonam who uses taxis to travel the city.

Given the current conditions, she chooses to stay at home on holidays. For Poonam, who works at an information and computer company, home is definitely her favorite place.

"There is no traffic jam to face and it is cheaper," she said.

The heavy traffic in the city does not only cost the city residents economically, but also affects their health.

The air pollution combined with the lack of green space in the city has forced residents to stay at home or spend their time wandering through modern shopping malls.

At a seminar in April, Sarwo Handhayani, head of the Jakarta Park Agency, promised that her office would improve the quality of parks and expand their size.

Beside planting colorful flowers, the agency also promises to build several new city parks with benches and fountains.

Among the agency's programs for this year is the reconstruction of Suropati Park in Menteng, the improvement of the sidewalks on Jl. Sudirman and the construction of the Diponegoro sculpture on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta.

"We need public participation, otherwise this program will not bear fruit," she said, implying that her office was short of cash.