Land agency firm on building permits for suburban areas

JAKARTA (JP): The National Land Agency has instructed its offices in West Java to stop issuing permits to developers who want to build housing complexes in Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi.

One of the agency's public relations officers confirmed yesterday that the instruction issued on Oct. 3, 1996, has been sent to its offices.

The instruction was reportedly issued based on the number of housing projects planned for 92,298 hectares of land. The agency said that the number of permits issued should suffice until 2018.

Earlier, the agency, headed by State Minister of Agrarian Affairs Soni Harsono, halted additional construction in industrial zones as well.

The latest instruction was formulated after evaluations were conducted by the Coordination Body of Spatial Plans, which is under the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), and other related offices.

The agency's regional offices have issued permits for 92,298 hectares of the 159,780 hectares of land designated for housing complexes in Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi.

However, only 13,276 hectares have been used for housing.

Soni said the agency's offices should take an inventory of the sites with permits, with expired permits and those with no permits at all. The offices are also to list the certificates obtained and not with sites have been built on.

One of the agency's public relations officers would not say if the instruction is related to Bappenas' efforts to preserve the water catchment areas in West Java's mountain resorts, which are upstream from the Ciliwung river.

Siswoko, the Ministry of Public Works official who heads the Ciliwung-Cisadane river basin development project, admitted that building activities are hard to stop in attractive sites. However, he said, "building should commence only after thorough environmental impact studies (Amdal) have been conducted."

Amdal studies are mandatory but don't pay enough attention to the physical and hydrological effects of construction, Siswoko said. As a result, floods continue to occur, even though the ministry continues to build dams and repair pump stations.

Because of excessive building activity in West Java, he said, many of its 193 lakes are no longer able to function as water catchment sites.

"The lakes were mostly created in the Dutch colonial era," he said, adding that the ministry now has to "rehabilitate" them.

Future projects in the Ciliwung river basin, which covers 40,000 hectares, should incorporate ways to provide catchment areas, he said.

Control of the Ciliwung's upstream area, he said, should also be extended to activities in the largest, middle part of the river basin, which covers 19,000 hectares.

The river basin in Tokyo, Japan, he said, is also densely populated but includes residential roads that enable the temporary catchment of rainwater.

"Officials and the public there are also disciplined enough to follow the rules," he said. (anr)