Lack of parkland worries Bandung city residents

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Visitors to Cilaki Park no longer have to endure reeking horse manure or the sight of filthy huts. Horse and buggy drivers and owners of the food stalls were forced to leave the area three months ago due to public demands for a cleaner park.

Cilaki Park provides a place for fresh air with its shady trees, calmness from the bustle of the city and leisurely walks as most "sidewalks" in the city have become cluttered by stalls or parking spaces.

Despite the new ruling, the buggies are still permitted on the park's perimeter.

"It's not bad now. The park is cleaner and no longer stinks, and children can run and play freely in the park," said Evi Fadillah, 33, while looking after her two children, aged six and three, running freely in Cilaki Park.

Bandung city, known as Parisj van Java during the Dutch era when it was built, had initially been planned as the cornerstone of a garden city. Local residents and visitors, however, can still benefit from the number of parks, open fields and green boulevards, especially in the northern part of the city. However, trees have not been evenly planted in Bandung, as can be seen along Jl. Suci and Jl. Soekarno-Hatta.

The concept of a garden city was initiated by Sir Thomas More in 1516. Many of the historical parks have Dutch names, such as Molukkenpark or Maluku Park on Jl. Maluku with its distinctive features consisting of a fountain, hilly contours and a statue of a Dutch pastor.

In addition, there is the Insulindepark, or Archipelago Park (now Traffic Park), which still has ancient plants, like the Sausage tree, and the Ijzerman Park on Jl. Ganesha, now called Ganesha Park in front of the Bandung Institute of Technology campus, which is still the habitat for a number of unique birds.

Head of the Bandung Park and Burial Services Office, Taufik Rachman, said that there were now 521 parks in Bandung. The figure has increased compared to the 2003 figure of 490 parks with an area of 199 hectares.

"The increased park area includes open areas at various intersections, apart from those that developers must set aside for parks when constructing new residential areas," he said.

However, he said that the municipal administration had only a limited amount of money earmarked for the maintenance of the parks -- Rp 500 million per year. His office is working together with third parties to reduce the burden of maintaining the parks.

In spite of the added number of parks, the percentage of green and open spaces is still around 1.5 percent, far from the ideal figure of 7 percent of the total city area of 16,700 hectares.

Apart from that, the added number of park areas is not equivalent to the number of trees felled, needed to supply the needs of city residents. Many trees have been cut and have not been replaced during the construction of the Pasteur-Surapati overpass.

The current problem is not only to revitalize the parks by changing their names and providing maintenance and by handing over them to third parties, but more trees need to be planted in the city.