JP/8/Green8
Bambang Nurbianto The Jakarta Post Jakarta
The danger of flooding is real in Jakarta as we all found out earlier this year when at least 30 people were killed, 200,000 others forced to flee their homes, and damage amounting to around Rp 10 trillion was caused.
Officials from the city administration, however, have turned a collective deaf ear and a blind eye to the warnings of experts that future floods could be worse if they fail to maintain or even expand the number of green areas in the city.
Planners, environmentalists and other experts often link the problem of flooding to the lack of green areas in the city as violations of the principles of environmentally friendly development continue.
"It is typical of the officials currently serving in the city that they always try to pursue short-term benefits as much as possible without considering the long-term problems that result," said Ahmad "Puput' Safrudin of the Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).
Puput was commenting on the planned development of a new business center in an area of Senayan that comes under the control of the Senayan sports complex authority in Central Jakarta, and which was originally zoned as a public, green area.
The construction of the new business center on the 40,000- square-meter site is not the only controversial plan doing the rounds at the moment. Governor Sutiyoso has also agreed to reconstruct the fire-razed flea market in Taman Puring in South Jakarta, whose location according to the 2010 city master plan is supposed to be a green area.
There have been a number of controversial projects constructed in the Senayan area, including the Mulia Hotel, Plaza Senayan and Taman Ria Senayan.
The city administration has also approved the construction of a controversial sports mall on a site in Kelapa Gading, East Jakarta, that was originally zoned for social and public facilities.
The chairman of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Association of Planners (IAP), Abdul Alim Salam, also criticized the administration saying that the city would eventually pay an expensive price for the administration's lack of commitment to the environment.
He stressed that green and other open spaces in the city played a significant role in easing the annual floods as they served as catchment areas.
Alim said that two main problems would become apparent in the future if the development of a business centers in Senayan continued.
First, it would cause environmental problems due to a diminution in the number of green areas. Second, problems would arise if the city needed more land for sports facilities in the future.
"Therefore, the development of non-sporting facilities on the land that is now controlled by the Senayan sports complex authority should be stopped. The Senayan area should be treated as something akin to a sacred site," Alim told The Jakarta Post.
Puput reminded Governor Sutiyoso that his administration should expand the green areas in the city from the present nine percent to about 14 percent of the total area of Jakarta as mandated by the city master plan up to 2010.
"How can the city administration increase the number of green areas if it continues to violate the land use policies set out in the city master plan," said Puput, adding that the ideal extent of green areas should be 30 percent of the total area of the city.
Wicaksono Sarosa, an executive director of the Urban and Regional Development Institute (URDI), said that worse flooding would not be the only consequence of the reduction in the number of green spaces in the capital.
Another consequence would be that the city would become hotter. This was due to two main reasons. First, the air would become hotter due to the loss of green spaces. Second, it would become hotter as more people would buy air conditioners.
"So, those who suffer most will be the people who are not able to afford air conditioners," said Wicaksono.