Looking to the river

Many eyebrows might have been raised when, a few days ago the city administration made public its plan to "revitalize" Jakarta's rivers and waterways for transportation purposes. The waterways, which have for many decades functioned mostly as dump sites, would be used as components in the city's integrated transportation system.

The administration has already instructed the City Public Works Agency to make a preliminary study on that section of the Ciliwung river which runs from Pasar Baru, Central Jakarta, to Ancol in the north. But the plan, which is part of a draft bylaw on a planned integrated transportation system for Jakarta, sounds overly ambitious, even absurd and ridiculous, to many. Some people have called the concept crazy -- an ambitious idea that reflects the administration's frustration over its inability to deal with the complicated problems that stand in the way of setting up an effective land transportation system.

As anyone can see, traffic in Jakarta has been getting worse from day to day, along with the growing number of people and businesses in the city. But the administration has time and again failed to find a working formula to ease traffic, which actually does need an integrated system whose realization must involve several institutions and ministries.

While no single cure to the traffic problems has yet been found, the administration has started working on a busway program that has drawn pros and cons among the public. Meanwhile, construction of new flyovers and enlargement of the existing roads are considered the best possible choice to curb the city's daily traffic snarls as no more vacant plots are left for the construction of new roads. Unfortunately, the number of new vehicles of various brands continues to steadily increase from year to year.

Traffic experts have said that it is practically impossible to improve the city's traffic system without totally revising the existing spatial and zoning plans -- a concept that sounds even more inconceivable. In such a frustrating situation, the city administration is presently turning its attention to the rivers and canals, all of which have so far been badly used.

It must, however, be said that, basically, the idea to use the rivers and canals as an integral component of the city's transportation system is actually quite logical. Jakarta has 13 rivers/canals, many of which played a significant role as transportation arteries in the old days of Dutch colonial times, and in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Ciliwung river, which bisects the areas of Jl. Hayam Wuruk and Jl. Gajah Mada in downtown Jakarta, was at that time used to transport forestry products and other merchandise to the areas west of the Krukut river in Tanah Abang.

Even in the 1970s people could still use boats to go from Manggarai to Setiabudi in South Jakarta. All this goes to attest that river transportation is not really such a new thing in Jakarta. The question, however, is how serious is the city administration and how consistent will it turn out to be, both technically and financially, to turn the idea into reality?

Be that as it may, comparing Jakarta's badly abused and polluted rivers with those of Kalimantan in their present state is actually more rational than to liken them to those of countries such as Singapore and North Korea, where the rivers are well maintained.

For example, river transportation was very popular in Kalimantan before motorized vehicles began flooding the provinces in early the 1970s. Slowly, the river boats lost the competition while at the same time sedimentation from deforestation made the rivers more and more difficult to navigate.

The condition of Jakarta's rivers is of course far worse than that in Kalimantan. Over the decades, people in Jakarta have been treating them as less and less as navigable waterways and more and more like all-purpose garbage disposals/toilets. This must be taken into serious consideration by the city administration before it can even think of realizing its dream.

Those rivers must be widened, dredged and cleaned of all garbage and debris. And this will be very costly and time- consuming. River terminals must be built and a decision must be taken on the appropriate type of boat that is suitable for transporting people.

Another fact that must be taken into consideration is that all rivers in Indonesia are "rain rivers" that only have adequate water during the rainy season -- sometimes actually too much to be safe for a boat -- and not enough in the dry season. The most difficult thing to accomplish, however, is to maintain the rivers' cleanliness by, among other things, encouraging people to stop throwing garbage into them.

Given those facts, the question is, will the city administration be able to consistently proceed with the project?

We suggest that the city start with a more reasonable plan: limited river transportation such as for seasonal sightseeing purposes. Providing large boats to ply long routes similar in function to the vehicles used on the ground public transportation system, such as for example the mikrolet minibuses, is an impossibility.

By so doing, the city administration might gradually be able to develop the rivers for transportation and at the same time demonstrate to residents that clean rivers can be used for many useful purposes. Cleaning up the rivers must therefore be progressively and steadily undertaken before thinking of using them as part of the city's grand transportation system.