Lack of parkland worries Bandung city residents

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.