JP/8/Green8

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.