Overpopulation remains a threat for Jakarta

Overpopulation remains a threat for Jakarta

This week, the Jakarta administration will launch a large-scale
crackdown on unskilled migrants who have entered the city after
the Idul Fitri holiday. Governor Sutiyoso's administration has
blamed migrants as the source of many urban problems. Some
observers, meanwhile, believe the crackdown could be in violation
of the Constitution, which states that the country's land and its
resources are "assets for the people's prosperity" and that every
Indonesian citizen has the right to "live and work in human
dignity". In this first article in a series on the issue, The
Jakarta Post's Damar Harsanto examines whether migration is
really at the root of the city's woes.

With a current population estimated from 10-13 million, some
analysts estimate Jakarta could be growing by up to 250,000
people a year.

Many of the migrants to the city often come after the Idul
Fitri holiday, further squeezing an already overcrowded, dirty
city, which 2004 figures say has a population density of 14,642
people per square kilometer.

As a consequence, public zones such as parks, riverbanks and
the spaces under overpasses have been turned into slum housing by
squatters, while road shoulders, pedestrian sidewalks and bridges
are lined with migrants who earn their living by becoming street
vendors.

Lured by dreams of good money and a better life, every new
influx puts an increased strain on the city's transportation,
schools, hospitals and water supplies.

The waste from riverside slums and larger industrial polluters
has made Jakarta Bay a toxic dump, and the black muck from each
of the city's 13 polluted rivers is increasing every year,
regularly killing thousands of fish.

Worse still, more than 60 percent of city's residents, many of
them squatters, rely on groundwater supplies for bathing because
infrastructure to deliver treated tap water is sorely lacking.

Sutiyoso has repeatedly emphasized that the increased numbers
of migrants were preventing his administration from solving the
many urban problems in the capital.

"We cannot improve the lives of city residents should people
continue to flood into Jakarta ... We have to inform those people
that Jakarta is already overcrowded now," he said.

But urban activists believe it is not the migrants who are the
main cause of the city's problems.

They blame the massive uncontrolled development in the city,
including the growth of improperly planned shopping malls,
commercial premises and upmarket housing estates. These they say
are crowding out green spaces, increasing groundwater pollution
and displacing the poor, giving them nowhere to go but roadsides
and riverbanks.

There were a total of 12 new malls completed in the city in
2004 and 11 more are currently being constructed. However, while
the middle classes and businesspeople are catered for, public
housing projects for low-income residents are almost non-existant
and substandard accomodation, traffic jams and mounting garbage
are now regular features of many peoples' daily lives.

According to city watchdog the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta)
these planning problems will burden the city for years to come
because of the glaring lack of professionalism in the
administration.

"The administration should humbly admit that it has not been
serious or professional enough in dealing with these problems and
is now looking for a scapegoat," Fakta chairman Azas Tigor
Nainggolan said.