Misery, not gold on Jakarta's streets

Misery, not gold on Jakarta's streets

The bright lights of Jakarta are a magnet for migrants who
continue to try their luck in the metropolis. Behind the glow,
however, there are serious urban health problems that do not
emerge in rural areas, observes The Jakarta Post's Rita A.
Widiadana. More stories on Page 2 and Page 3.

JAKARTA (JP): Life can be easy and comfortable for people who
live in the luxurious, air-conditioned houses in Pondok Indah,
Kebayoran Baru, Menteng and other elite areas in the capital city
of Jakarta.

In the morning, as they get ready to leave for work, drivers
are waiting to take them to the office. Reservations for lunch
and dinner are already booked at classy restaurants.

Unfortunately, only a group of well-off minorities can afford
such cozy lifestyles. Millions of Jakarta residents have to
contend with living in stuffy houses or cardboard box structures
in polluted slums or are left to roam the city's streets.

Others make do with living in suburban areas, about two to
three hours from the city center. Many of them are jobless and
find it hard to get daily meals.

For the less fortunate Jakartans, life is indeed very tough.

Suranti, a low-ranking civil servant at the Ministry of
National Education, shared her daily experiences.

Living in a newly-built housing complex in Bekasi, 75
kilometers east of the heart of Jakarta, this mother of a small
baby says, "Every day, I spend about two and a half hours on a
crowded bus to go to my office on Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta.
It is very tiring but I don't have any choice."

Surono, not his real name, a toll gate worker, has another
problem. "I inhale toxic gases and other hazardous chemical
substances coming from cars. I frequently have serious headaches
and problems with my throat and stomach," the Yogyakarta native
complained.

"But at least I have a permanent job here in Jakarta," he said
proudly.

The scintillating city of Jakarta, with job opportunities and
promises of better futures, lures millions throughout Indonesia,
especially after the Idul Fitri Muslim holiday.

A population and urban poor expert from the University of
Indonesia's Demographic Institution, Dr. Sri Oemijati
Djajanegara, warns that the rapid growth of the city's population
will greatly affect the standard of living of people in Jakarta
and other big cities in Indonesia.

The city's population growth is clearly out of control and
large segments of the population suffer from poverty and neglect.

Today Jakarta is jam-packed with nine million people by night
and about 15 million by day. The populace swells each year. The
city's air is famously filthy and cars often go slower than
pedestrians because of constant traffic jams. Not to mention the
city's slew of buses, taxis and other dilapidated vehicles.

"There will be limited facilities, including housing, public
transportation, clean water, education and health," said Sri.

Professor of Public Health at the University of Atmajaya Dr.
Charles Suryadi agrees that the majority of Jakartans suffer from
minor to serious physical as well as mental health problems
because of the lack of various public facilities.

"How can they be healthy if they don't eat well, work too hard
and live in dirty places?" he contended.

He said many urban people also suffered from mental health,
including stress and depression, which in turn affected their
physical wellbeing.

As a metropolitan city, Jakarta could no longer accommodate
its residents with adequate basic facilities or provide a secure
environment so that residents did not live in fear, he added.

He said Indonesia had about 234 cities, all of which did not
meet the standard's of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The organization's survey indicates that less than 40 percent
of urban households have access to piped water; less than 70
percent have private toilets; and about 21 percent of use shared
toilets as well as public toilets. There is no sewerage system in
the cities of Indonesia. Therefore, people in urban areas have to
build septic tanks.

Reports on the monitoring of the quality of piped drinking
water in Indonesian cities shows that 58 percent of piped water
is contaminated.

"Most Jakartans, including the well-off, drink water from
ground wells which are probably contaminated by human waste from
septic tanks. You can imagine," Charles said.

In addition to housing and sanitation, there is also the
problem of food hygiene, especially in cities, because the
majority of urbanites habitually eat snacks or eat outside their
homes at food vendors and small restaurants.

"Both the rich and the poor have food and cholesterol
problems. They are growing fat," Charles said.

The rich people eat nutritious and fatty foods, while the poor
consume a diet of cheap, salty and fatty snacks.

"The poor people have high cholesterol problems because they
eat a lot of fried snacks, such as salty kerupuk and chips, as
well as sweet and fattening cakes."

To worsen the problem, the healthcare service in Jakarta is
still far from perfect. Most hospitals, the privately owned in
particular, prefer to cater for wealthy patients.

The poor have to satisfy themselves with healthcare from
Puskesmas community health centers, many of which
have closed down due to the economic crisis.

"Urban health problems are very complicated. They are linked
to medical problems, the city's planning and environment and
social and political conditions," he commented.

An urban planning expert at the World Bank, Suhadi, said urban
health problems were part and parcel of city life.

"In dealing with it, the city must be healthy, meaning that it
should have adequate public infrastructures, create a safe
atmosphere and opportunities for each of the city's dwellers, "
he said.

The city administration has done a lot of work to improve the
quality of the city's living conditions, including the Muhammad
Husni Thamrin (MHT) urban improvement project which helps improve
the conditions in slum areas.

An ideal city would be one where the administration included
more grassroots ideas and involved people in the shaping of
public policies related to the wellbeing of the city and its
people.

"So far, public involvement has been rare in any urban
improvement activities," said Charles.

He added that it required a holistic approach to pursue
strategies to tackle Indonesia's massive problems of urban
health.

If many of the city's residents are ill and feel insecure
about living here, Jakarta will likely see a downturn its number
of residents. The workforce would then have difficulty recruiting
skilled staff and the economy would, in the long-term, suffer.

"The human price of urban health problems is massive" Charles
said.