Malang not as cool as before

Malang not as cool as before

Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Malang

Set in the mountains, the picturesque and cool city of Malang,
East Java, is now getting hotter according to locals and not,
they say, for a good reason.

Situated at the foot of the Welirang, Semeru and Penanggungan
mountains, residents say the resort has changed for the worse
during the past five years. They worry higher temperatures along
with increasing pollution and traffic congestion will make Malang
a less-attractive destination for tourists trying to escape their
own overcrowded cities.

"Unlike several years back, Malang is now getting warmer; it's
not that different now to Indonesia's second-largest city,
Surabaya," Rudi Sudarmanto, a management student at Brawijaya
University (Unibraw) in the city, told The Jakarta Post recently.

Unclean air

"The jams in several sections of Malang are now so severe that
they resemble Surabaya's bottlenecks; they're forcing some
motorists to wear masks so they don't inhale gas fumes," he said.

Despite a mask -- and the mountain air -- Rudi said he still
had frequent respiratory trouble with dizziness and sore eyes in
the dry season.

Rudi is not alone. Data from the Malang municipal health
office shows that acute upper respiratory infections, while on
the decline, are still widespread in the city. In 2000, 185,690
people were infected, dropping slightly to 171,390, people in
2001.

A similar pattern has emerged in the Malang region, with upper
respiratory infections topping the list of the 10 most prevalent
illnesses in the area-- in 1999, 502,199 cases were recorded,
with 437,873 in 2000 and 129,385 in 2002.

In Surabaya, these infections reached 419,401 in 2000,
declining slightly to 405,148 in 2001 and 401,362 in 2002.

Compared with Surabaya, the incidence of respiratory trouble
in Malang is considered high, despite the large quantitative
difference, in view of Malang's lower population and industrial
density.

Head of Malang's Regional Environment Impact Control Board
(Bapeldada), Sailendra, said the change in Malang's air quality
was the combination of land use planning decisions by the local
administration, industrial growth, automotive gas emissions and
forest destruction around Malang following widespread illegal
logging.

But while they might be worsening, air quality test results
carried out by the city administration in Malang in September
this year, showed average city air pollution rates were still
within normal limits set out in the East Java Governor's Decree
No. 129/1996.

At the always-busy Arjosari bus terminal, carbon monoxide was
recorded at 0.70 parts per million (ppm), lower than the standard
of 20 ppm, lead at 0, sulfur dioxide at 0.0053 ppm (standard=0.1
ppm) and ammonia at 0.0573 ppm (the standard is 2 ppm).

"The highest record was held by dust at 0.167 ppm, still lower
than the quality standard of 0.26 ppm. This dust is mostly likely
to have caused the high incidence of respiratory ailments,"
Sailendra said.

It was not caused by automotive and industrial gases, which
produced lead and carbon dioxide, he said, but rather from
conflagration-prone forests and mountains around Malang like
those in Batu, Pasuruan, Probolinggo, and the recent volcanic
eruption at Mount Semeru.

"The change in Malang's air quality is actually more due to
forest damage in its environs," he said.

Forest destruction

Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park chief Herry Subagiadi,
agreed, saying the ecosystem imbalance was more affected by the
destruction of forests around the city.

"Timber theft, illegal logging and land reclamation for
plantations, settlements and farms have contributed to the
forests' destruction," he told the Post.

Park data indicates that forest fires in the Bromo Tengger
Semeru zone in August covered 513.57 hectares, up from only 38.50
hectares in the preceding month. The figures may rise, given the
lack of awareness of ecosystem maintenance and the absence of
controls.

Likewise, 13.50 hectares of forests were being illegally
occupied by squatters or companies who were clearing the land and
constructing houses, farms and residential estates. Police are
currently investigating the cases.

With forest fires and reclamation, about 30 percent of the
Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park's total area of 50,276
hectares has been laid to waste.

Herry said the damage excluded destruction in production
forest zones managed by the state forestry company Perum
Perhutani, which were also considerably reclaimed for agriculture
and plantations. Hundreds of hectares of forests in Malang
regency and its surroundings had been denuded," he said.

Deforestation on mountain slopes also meant the areas become
vulnerable to natural disasters. In 2002, 1,241 locals were
injured and four died in 49 landslides, 86 floods and 167 storms,
which destroyed 267 houses and 36 public buildings.

The Sumber Pucung and Kalipare districts are notorious for
their landslides, while the districts of Bantur, Tirtoyudo,
Sumber Manjing, Pagelaran and Jabung were known flood-prone
areas.

Herry said car traffic on Mount Bromo had also damaged its
scenic beauty.

History and modern-day development

Located at an altitude of 399 meters to 662.5 meters, Malang
was officially established by the Dutch colonial administration
on April 25, 1938, and still has many historic buildings,
especially centered around the Ijen Boulevard area.

Today the area has become a nostalgic place, often frequented
by Dutch tourists.

In 1879, Malang's municipal railways began to operate,
triggering the city's rapid advancement. With the rising public
demand for infrastructure, land use underwent a major
transformation.

More recently, the historic city is changing again. Declared
an international education city on Oct. 4, this year Malang is
now growing quickly. Many new office buildings and supermarkets
have sprung up on major roads and this year Malang Town Square
will become the latest addition to growing list of superstores in
the city.

Real estate developers are also turning land plots into high-
brow housing complexes.

But as the development continues, infrastructure in the area
has not followed pace, with many sections of roads in the city
remaining un-widened. Locals say the traffic congestion in
certain parts of the city, particularly during peak hours, is now
bad.

Industrialization, too, is on the increase in Malang. The city
listed 179 medium-size businesses (with 20 to 99 workers) in
2003, up from 169 in 2001. Large-scale businesses (with over 100
workers) last year totaled 41, as against 49 in 2001 and this
year it is expected to increase.

Manufacturers include food and beverage makers, chemical and
chemical processors, equipment and cigarette-production
industries -- and they are doing well.

In 2000, the income of medium-scale businesses amounted to Rp
222.112 million, which rose in 2001 to Rp 273.248 million.
Earning of large firms increased from Rp 4.279 billion in 2000 to
Rp 5.4 billion in 2001.

Sailendra said despite the intensified industrialization, all
companies operating in the area possessed environmental licenses
and the likelihood of their polluting the city's outskirts was
slim.

However, reports show many firms have violated the rules,
prompting the board to keep monitoring pollution-prone businesses
like chemicals producers, hospitals and restaurants.

Action needed to restore past glories

To restore Bromo and Malang to their former state, Herry said
all parties -- both the government and the state needed to be
willing to act.

Sadly, he said, the lack of coordination and understanding of
the issues has persisted. An example was the regional
administration going ahead with a motocross program in 2002 that
had damaged Mount Bromo, a project which was against the wishes
of the national park management, he said.

To reduce traffic congestion in Malang, the municipality is
preparing a commuter train project for next year, which is now
being deliberated by the House of Representatives.

The city has proposed a budget of Rp 16 billion to operate the
train. Surabaya has operated a similar system since early this
year, however the rate of traffic congestion in Surabaya has not
yet decreased.

But while Malang is transformed, many say for the worse,
visits by foreign tourists to the city have continued to rise.

The municipal immigration office showed the number of short
stays increased in number from 7,957 in 2002 to 8,527 last year.

Of the total, tourists from southeast Asia made the greatest
proportion of visits to the city.