Reclamation project jinxed from the outset

Reclamation project jinxed from the outset

The Jakarta City administration's plan to reclaim part of the
Jakarta Bay for commercial projects has sparked controversy. The
Jakarta Post's reporters Bambang Nurbianto and Tertiani ZB
Simanjuntak look into the issue.

Jakarta has witnessed rapid development in the last three
decades, making it increasingly more difficult and expensive to
acquire land for development.

Reclamation of the city's northern coastal areas, as a result,
was deemed the right move to provide new land for development
projects.

Since the 1990s, the Soeharto administration had been pursuing
the project to reclaim about 2,700 hectares of sea along the 32-
kilometer northern coast.

To legalize the project, Soeharto then issued Decree No.
52/1995 on the implementation of the reclamation on July 13,
1995, followed by the issuance of Bylaw No. 8/1995 by the City
Council on Oct. 6.

The project has been controversial since the very beginning.
The general public, especially activists and environmentalists,
have opposed it, saying that it would only bring about
environmental and social damage.

But nobody dared oppose Soeharto at that time. And former
minister of environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja had to agree to it
and issued an Environmental Impact Analysis (Amdal), which gave
the green light for the implementation of the project.

Fortunately, the project did not materialize at the time
because of the economic crisis which hit the country at the end
of 1997 and the downfall of the former authoritarian president
Soeharto in May 1998.

But now, Governor Sutiyoso has revived the project, saying
that property development in the east, west, and south had
reached its limit.

"It (reclamation) is the only way for the city to expand land
which is badly needed to support the fast growing city," argued
Sutiyoso.

The governor, as well as city officials, have used almost
every occasion possible to introduce the project.
They often mentioned the bad condition of the coastal areas,
including the slums and poor facilities.

They said if the reclamation project was implemented, the area
would be converted into modern facilities like exclusive houses,
condominiums, hotels, office buildings and other elite commercial
facilities.

In the whimsical imaginings of Sutiyoso, Jakarta's northern
coastal area would be like other world class waterfront cities
like Singapore, Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong and Sydney.

But again, the project sparked protests from the public,
particularly activists and environmentalists. They said that it
would certainly cause serious damage to the surrounding
environment and residents.

First, the project would cause seawater levels to rise another
12 centimeters resulting in floods.

Second, it would spark social conflict as thousands of
fishermen from Kamal Muara, Muara Angke, Muara Baru and Kampung
Luar Batang would lose their source of income.

Third, it would damage the marine ecosystem as some 330
million cubic meters of sand would be needed to reclaim the land.

And fourth, it would worsen pollution around the Kepulauan
Seribu (Thousand Islands) regency due to activities caused by the
reclamation process and the utilization of the reclaimed land.

When the issue became a public debate in early 1995, Sarwono
revealed the project would also compound the impact of global
warming, which had caused the melting of ice at the poles.

The melting of the polar caps has resulted in a rise in sea
levels, including in the Jakarta straits, where many small
islands, including Air Kecil, Payung Kecil, Ubi Besar, Ubi Kecil,
Dapur, and Gosong Pebelokan, have submerged.

"More islands in the area will disappear if the project is
implemented," he said at that time.

"It is a violation of environmental principles," Longgena
Ginting of the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) said when
meeting House Commission VIII for environment affairs recently.

It seems that debate surrounding the reclamation plan may not
end in the near future as the battle between the two opposing
parties becomes more heated.

It all started in February when State Minister for the
Environment Nabiel Makarim issued Decree No. 14/2003 to reject
the project. He also demanded that President Megawati
Soekarnoputri revoke Presidential Decree No. 52/1995, which
became the legal basis for the project.

Even though Nabiel said that the decree was final, the city
administration has made every effort to revive the project.

Governor Sutiyoso and his officials were upset after learning
about the decree and in response to it, made an emotional
statement, saying that he would ignore it. He argued that based
on regional autonomy law, the project could be implemented
without the minister's approval.

The decree has sent city officials, scurrying to find reasons
and justifications to make the giant project possible.

The city administration worked in cooperation with the
University of Indonesia's Research Center for Applied Geography
to organize a public debate, which, according to several
environmentalists, was only meant to justify the project.

Representatives of the organizations that launched strong
opposition to the project, such as Walhi and the Indonesian
Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), were not invited to the
event.

The city administration also planned to take Nabiel's decree
to the State Administrative Court. The city administration and BP
Pantura sought a court decision to overturn the decree, but they
later canceled the plan after realizing that they did not have
the right to sue Nabiel.

According to Law No. 5/1986 on the State Administrative Court,
a lawsuit can only be filed by an individual or group who has
directly suffered from a written order or policy issued by the
authorities or civil servants.

Meanwhile, the deputy assistant for Amdal affairs to the state
minister of the environment, Karliansyah, insisted that the
minister's decision was final because it was based on the results
of a study on the environmental impact of the project.

He said that the analysis did not present any solution to the
various social and environmental problems that could result from
the project, therefore the document could no longer be used as a
reference to endorse the project.

"If the city administration wants to make a similar project
along the northern coastal area of Jakarta, it should present a
new analysis," said Karliansyah.

And now, in an effort to seek legal grounds for the
reclamation plan, city officials are preparing a new analysis.
But they insist that they will not seek the approval of the state
minister of the environment as they believe it only needs the
endorsement of the Regional Environmental Impact Management
Agency (Bapedalda), which is under the auspices of the governor.