Residents protest housing complex

JAKARTA: Around 100 residents of Tugu Selatan in North Jakarta staged on Wednesday to protest the existence of the Villa Permata Gading housing complex, which they accused of having caused floods in the area.

Since its establishment in 1995, residential homes in the area were always flooded, said the protesters.

"Every year, my house always floods, but that never happened before (the complex was built)," Aminah of the RT4 neighborhood unit was quoted as saying by Antara. She claimed to have been living in the area for the past 15 years.

The protesters demanded the city administration to revoke the business license of its developer, PT Multiduta Parama Centra, for ignoring to conduct the obligatory environmental impact assessment before developing the housing complex.

They also demanded PT Multiduta to cover all damages and losses due to the flooding, and to fund the construction of a water channel to resolve the flood problem. -- JP