Jakarta struggling to reshape unique lake

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Gandaria trees, for example, had been replaced by other trees.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.