Looking to the river

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.