'Population issue not taken seriously'

Statistics show that Jakarta is home to about 8.3 million people, while migrants continue to arrive in the city in search of work. The Jakarta Post asked some Jakartans how they felt to be living in one of the world's most populous cities, in observance of World Population Day that fell on Sunday.

Yustinus Heri, 29, is a journalist with a travel magazine in Kedoya, West Jakarta. He rents a house in Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta:

I think the administration puts the population issue at the bottom of its priority list. The officials do not take the matter seriously. Last year, they evicted squatters without offering them any alternatives.

The administration said that it had offered the evictees low- cost apartments to live in. But, I doubt that idea worked, as many of the apartments have been sold to the rich -- who later leased the space to other people and profited from it.

I think the administration should start considering overpopulation as one of the city's most urgent problems. Otherwise, we will suffer unbearable consequences in the future.

Hartoto, 30, works for a private company in Kedoya, West Jakarta. He rents a house near his office with his wife:

The administration should focus seriously on its policy to provide low-cost apartments for the poor. That would give squatters homes to settle in.

I observed, in Ancol (North Jakarta), for instance, many low- cost apartments remain vacant, or that many of the tenants are not poor. That would not happen if the administration strictly monitored the scheme.

I think the main contributor to overpopulation in the city is transmigration and not population growth, thanks to the success of the family planning program.

--The Jakarta Post