Jakarta struggling to reshape unique lake

Bambang Parlupi, Contributor, Jakarta

The rapid pace of development and the increasing population in Jakarta have been taking a toll on the land. Paddy fields and orchards have given way to shopping plazas and industrial buildings. Lakes and swampy areas have been turned into real estate for residential and office compounds.

Lake Babakan, in the Srengseng Sawah area of South Jakarta, however, is one lake in Jakarta that has been left undisturbed.

The local administration placed this lake under protection as a water catchment area for the city, as it is lush with foliage, and it will remain part of the city, said Indra Sutisna, 36, a member of the Srengseng Sawah village council.

Lake Babakan is a natural lake with several springs and never dries up, even during a prolonged drought.

In November 1997, the local administration designated Situ Babakan as a conservation site, and it was here that the peak event of the Regreening and Nature Conservation Program for South Jakarta took place. Hundreds of trees have been planted to regreen the area around the lake.

The city administration has not only conserved the lake forest area, but also the way of life of the Betawi, the indigenous people of Jakarta. Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso even named the district in 2001 as Lake Babakan -- the Village of Betawi Culture.

"Locals still practice Betawi traditions and customs," said Indra, who is a member of the Village of Betawi Culture secretariat.

Local youths have also been involved in conserving Lake Babakan. Sadeli, 32, a Betawi local resident and 1989 graduate of the Jakarta Agricultural High School, has pioneered a conservation drive for his area. With some 20 peers, he set up a group called Nuansa Lestari, or Conservation Nuance, and assigned themselves the task of conserving Lake Babakan, for which purpose they established the Lake Babakan Nature Conservation Team. The team has been conducting regreening activities since 1996, such as cleaning the lake and being active in the community.

"Currently, we are conserving some rare species of plants unique to the Betawi, particularly fruit plants that once flourished here and elsewhere in Jakarta," Sadeli said.

Locals, he said, had thoughtlessly cut these trees down for personal use or replaced them with plants from which they could gain commercial benefits.

Gandaria trees, for example, had been replaced by other trees. The young generation knew nothing about gandaria, he said.

Nuansa Lestari has cultivated some 20 fruit plants and about 50 garden or potted plants so far. They get the seedlings from villages on the city outskirts, or from South Jakarta's Office of Agriculture.

Sadeli said endangered trees included gandaria, namnam and rukem, in addition to kweni, a kind of sweet, strong-smelling mango, and gohok, which bears tart, purple fruit.

Apart from the lost plants, Lake Babakan environmentalists are concerned that some local businesspeople have built fish corrals in the lake to breed gold fish and imported fish such as the lou han, or flowerhorn fish, since the monetary crisis hit the country.

"The fish food will unfavorably affect the quality of the lake water. To make matters worse, there is also waste water from the households in the area. Eventually, the ecosystem will be damaged," he said.

Nur Syarif, 27, a member of the Situ Babakan Social Task Force, admitted that the fish corrals helped the locals extricate themselves from their economic problems, but a number of plants and animals indigenous to the lake were endangered as a result.

"There used to be lots of lotuses, but they are gone now," he said.

He explained that several local species began to disappear about 10-15 years ago. Many indigenous fish species in the lake, such as catfish, locally known as keting, melem and belida disappeared when people started taking the lotuses from the lake.

"Don't dream of seeing those fish now. The most you'll find are the fish that the farmers breed," Syarif added.

Only some 14 hectares of the 32-hectare lake holds water. Sadeli and other local environmentalists hope the local administration would take good care of the lake by filtering incoming water and hiring people to keep waste and garbage out of the lake.

The group is determined to restore the natural condition of the lake by cultivating water plants there, and hope to gain the support of all affected parties.

Unfortunately, said Sadeli, they have yet to receive any training from the Jakarta Natural Resources Conservation Center, let alone any financial aid from relevant institutions.