Joint master plan a must, Ali says
Joint master plan a must, Ali says
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Former governor Ali Sadikin told the city administration on
Wednesday to work with neighboring cities on a joint master plan
for Greater Jakarta that would address urban woes such as
overpopulation, unemployment and environmental degradation.
"Jakarta and neighboring towns desperately need to cooperate
to draw up a joint master plan for Greater Jakarta, instead of
each town making its own partial master plan," Ali said during a
hearing with the City Council.
Ali said that in the past separate master plans drawn up by
Jakarta and nearby cities led to the conversion of about 200
small lakes in Greater Jakarta into housing estates.
"Regency administrations transformed the lakes, which served
as water catchment areas, into housing estates, leading to
worsening flooding in the capital," he said.
Greater Jakarta includes Jakarta and its suburbs Bogor, Depok,
Tangerang and Bekasi.
He said a joint master plan did not necessarily mean Greater
Jakarta had to be placed under a single provincial
administration, as has been repeatedly proposed by current
Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso.
"I don't agree with the idea of putting Greater Jakarta under
a single provincial administration. The most important thing is
that Jakarta cooperates with its neighbors to put in place joint
programs to tackle the urban problems they are facing," he said.
He said the Jakarta administration should help its "poorer"
buffer towns transform themselves into self-reliant satellite
cities.
"Let's say, Jakarta spares Rp 2 trillion of its hefty Rp 14
trillion budget to assist in the development of its suburbs.
Jakarta should not be 'selfish,'" he said.
He said if Jakarta helped develop its suburbs into satellite
cities able to fill all of the residents' housing and employment
needs, people from outlying towns would no longer pour into
Jakarta for work.
"For a long time, the Jakarta administration and the central
government have failed to draw up comprehensive policies to boost
the development of cities around the capital, thereby failing to
stop residents from those cities from coming to Jakarta for
jobs," he said.
Urban planner Darrundono, who gave a presentation during the
hearing with the City Council, said the influx of commuters into
the capital every day led to huge losses due to fuel consumption
and worsening air pollution.
"We have not yet counted up the social losses we suffer as a
result of the stressful commute to work, which in turn hurts
productivity," Darrundono said.
He also recommended that Jakarta's suburbs be developed into
"self-contained cities", as well as urging the development of an
efficient mass rapid transportation system for commuters.