Land reclamation may be benefical to all

JAKARTA (JP): Speaker of City Council MH Ritonga expected yesterday that the land reclamation, aimed at developing a picturesque waterfront in North Jakarta, will be useful to all Jakartans.

"We are hoping that the new waterfront area will not create exclusivity, social envy or oppose development concepts," Ritonga said in a press conference in reference to an upcoming seminar on land reclamation.

Ritonga referred to land reclamation by private companies as a negative impact because only a chosen few could afford to live in such areas, creating elitism.

"Although that is not the intention, it is often the result of land reclamation. We hope it won't continue to be the case in the future," Ritonga said.

The City Council will hold a two-day seminar on land reclamation on Nov. 24 and 25 at Horizon hotel, North Jakarta.

The seminar will present nine papers on land reclamation, such as waterfront city planning, the possible environmental impact of waterfront cities and the legal aspect of a waterfront city.

Ritonga said the seminar is being held to prepare members of the City Council for when the city administration proposes to change the general city planning (RUTR) and regional development planning (RBWK).

"We will be ready when the city administration asks us to approve the gubernatorial decree to change RUTR and RBWK," he said.

Ritonga explained that land reclamation will affect RUTR and RBWK because it means that there will be approximately 4,000 extra hectares of land in North Jakarta.

"Land reclamation is the only way to solve the land problem in Jakarta because the number of people who come here increases every year while the land is still the same," Ritonga said.

He added that there are 8.8 million people in Jakarta who live on 65,000 hectares of land. On each square kilometer there are 13,123 people and in certain areas there are 50,000 people in one square kilometer. (yns)