Masterplan revision reduces green areas

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

When the tollroad to Soekarno-Hatta Airport flooded, many blamed Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK) luxury housing estate, which is built on protected mangrove forest along coastal areas of Kapuk Muara in North Jakarta.

But housing estates are not the only projects built on locations that were protected as green areas. Pondok Indah Hospital and Hotel Mulia in South Jakarta, and Taman Anggrek condominium and shopping center in West Jakarta have also contributed to the capital's dwindling water catchment areas.

The development of those projects were made possible with the issuance of the 1995-2010 Jakarta Masterplan, which is a revision of the 1985-2005 Jakarta Masterplan.

Marco Kusumawijaya, a city planning expert, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that the 1995-2010 Jakarta Masterplan was enforced after the development of Pantai Indah Kapuk.

In the revised land-use masterplan, many green areas, including those in Kapuk Muara, Tomang, and Sunter have disappeared.

Marco warned that the current masterplan of Jakarta is already a violation of sound environmental principles. Worse, there have been many violations of the masterplan approved by corrupt officials.

Marco said that such officials at the city administration should be replaced in order to stop such violations.

"We have frequently heard about violations against the masterplan, which has resulted in dwindling water catchment areas, therefore, it is time for all parties to rethink their past mistakes," he added.

He said that the city administration should stop issuing license permits for physical development projects, particularly those that require vast plots of land, as the remaining space should be maintained as green areas.

"The ongoing floods are causing misery to hundreds of thousands of Jakartans. This experience should be a good lesson for bureaucrats who always think of their own interests," he said.

Sharing Marco's idea, Joe Fernandez of the Institute for Policy and Community Development Studies (IPCOS), said that license permits should only be issued for the development of apartments.

"If the city administration considers that residential areas are still needed, they should be in the form of apartments, which could accommodate a lot of people without requiring a lot of space," he said.

Fernandez pointed out another problem as to why the city administration was not able to resolve the flood problems: That the governors only focused on short-term programs that could be completed within their terms of office.

"A development is a continuing process. If certain projects are not finished by a governor, the process should be continued by his successor," he said.

According to Fernandez, there are still many other projects constructed on preserved land along river banks and green belts.

Meanwhile, Marco also stressed that public participation is the key to any policy's success, including the effort to resolve the annual flood-related problems through public campaigns. It would be successful if the public realized that building houses close to riverbanks and throwing garbage into rivers only worsens problems related to flooding, said Marco, adding that strong leadership was needed to encourage greater public participation.