River transportation unlikely

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The old pictures of romantic cruises on Jakarta's rivers back in the city's early years may remained an insert in history books as experts are skeptical about the revival of river transportation in today's city as planned by Governor Sutiyoso's administration.

"What do you mean by water transportation? Bamboo-raft cruises or what?" commented Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo jokingly.

But he was not joking when expressing doubts that the project could be realized next year, saying that the officials assigned had yet to master the necessary technology to implement it.

"We don't have the technology ... It is too sophisticated and well complicated -- not as easy as you would imagine," said Fauzi, who holds doctor of civil engineering from the school of architecture of Kaiserlautern University in Germany.

In a recent interview with The Jakarta Post, Fauzi was asked to comment on the plan by the Jakarta Transportation Agency, as instructed by Sutiyoso, to develop the first route for river transportation on the West Flood Canal -- from the Manggarai sluice gate, South Jakarta, to the Pejompongan sluice gate in Karet, Central Jakarta.

Fauzi explained that the plan could only work through the use of locks between the rivers and the sluice ponds to enable vessels to pass through safely.

He added that the construction of boat terminals, docks and turning places would also be a must.

"That's why the project will be too costly for us to afford with our cash-strapped city budget."

It is not only Fauzi who has doubts about the ambitious project.

Yanto, 45, who operates a small wooden ferry close to the Manggarai sluice gate, said the project was not realistic.

"This part of the Ciliwung river is only one meter deep. I don't think any large vessel or even medium-sized boat could pass here."

Claiming to have years of experience as a fisherman, he said small speedboats with a maximum capacity of six passengers were an option, "but the river would need to be at least three meters or four meters deep".

In addition to the technical problems, the project could also be hindered by the dumping of household waste by riverbank squatters directly into the city's rivers, thus polluting and reducing their depth.

Sutiyoso confirmed on Friday he had instructed the relevant agencies to conduct a feasibility study on river transportation.

"The route is relatively short as we just want to introduce the new transportation system to residents," he said.

The proposed four-kilometer route would represent the first stage of a planned link up to the north coast, and would constitute part of an envisaged integrated transportation system.

The project includes the construction of three boat halts at Manggarai, Jl. Sudirman (Dukuh Atas) and Karet, which would be close to railway stations and bus routes.

A preliminary study conducted by the transportation agency estimated that around 7,000 passengers per hour would make use of river transportation services during peak hours.

Initially, the city had planned to develop a route from Pasar Baru, Central Jakarta, to Ancol, North Jakarta, but changed its mind because of the low bridges along the route and inadequate water volumes.

I-Box

Old Jakarta, 'little Venice'

Since the 12th century, the Ciliwung river which divided Batavia (old Jakarta) into eastern and western sections, served as the main transportation system connecting the center of the Hindu Sunda Kingdom in Batutulis, Bogor, to Sunda Kalapa seaport.

Adolf Heuken writes in his Historical sites of Jakarta that Sunda Kalapa was visited by vessels from southern Sumatra's Palembang, Tanjungpura, Malaka, Makassar and Madura. Even traders from as far away as India, South China and the Ryuku Islands (now part of Japan) are said to have visited.

In the Dutch colonial era, a number of canals were built, including the Molenvliet (the canal the divides Jl. Hayam Wuruk and Jl. Gajah Mada in West Jakarta) and the Mookervart (now Kali Pesing).

J.J. de Vries writes in his Jakarta Tempo Doeloe that there was a tradition among the rich who owned plush resort houses alongside the Jactraweg (now Jl. Pangeran Jayakarta) to visit each others using boats docked at the rear of their villas along the Ciliwung river.

"They visited each other using boats rowed by their slaves along the river," de Vries writes.

Molenvliet was built in 1649 by a Chinese captain, Phoa Bing Am, to transport firewood to the factories near Glodok that produced, among others things, paper and gun powder. The canal was also utilized as a means of transportation.

But as the city grew, the rivers became shallower due to dumping.

According to Heuken, Governor General van Diemen ordered the dredging of the Mookervaart in 1681 and channeling into it of water from the Cisadane river in Tangerang in a bid to raise the canal's water levels.

"Unfortunately, the project only worsened the situation," he writes.

Today, Jakarta has 12 rivers flowing through it besides the main Ciliwung river. Most of these rivers, however, are shallow and severely polluted.