Slum areas have plenty of potential to alleviate poverty
Evi Mariani The Jakarta Post Jakarta
The absence of legal certainty and acknowledgement from the Jakarta administration has left people living in the capital's slums vulnerable to eviction, even though they may have the economic and social potential to lift themselves from poverty and improve their own housing environment.
The conclusion was the result of a week-long workshop by 43 undergraduate and postgraduate students majoring in urban architecture from various universities in Indonesia. The workshop was supported by the Department of Housing and Urban Renewal at the School of Architecture of Delft University of Technology (TUDeflt), the Netherlands.
The students visited four slums in the capital -- the banks of the Ciliwung River in Bukit Duri, South Jakarta; Cipinang, East Jakarta; Kota, West Jakarta and Luar Batang settlement, around an estuary in North Jakarta, from Dec. 8 to Dec. 15.
During the workshop, they assessed each neighborhood's strengths and weaknesses and produced a suggestive urban layout to sustain and improve the community.
"People in Bukit Duri are self-sufficient. They earn money from the informal sector. They don't pay taxes so the money circulating among them is not included in the city's revenue calculations," Andrea Peresthu, a member of the workshop steering committee, told The Jakarta Post recently.
As a consequence, he said, their economic contribution was not acknowledged by the administration, which subsequently considered them to be illegal occupants and blocked their access to fair competition in acquiring land.
While students were producing concepts to improve slums, people in slums around Pulomas dam, Kayuputih, East Jakarta, and fishermen on the Muara Angke River were evicted by the city administration on Dec. 15 and Dec. 11 respectively.
The result of the workshop -- giant banners containing sketches of the areas, the students' evaluation on the strengths and weaknesses of each community, and pictures -- are being exhibited at the Erasmus Huis from Dec. 16 through Jan. 10 on Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said, South Jakarta.
The evaluation was similar to a previous call by housing and community development specialist with the World Bank in Jakarta Parwoto Sugianto, who said that the government should provide loans to people living on riverbanks or in slums to enable them to actively participate in improving their existing houses and surrounding environments. The government also provided technical assistance so that proper drainage and sanitation facilities could be installed.
Visiting professor from the department H. Juergen Rosemann said the workshop had shown that the community could be a model for the city in the future.
"We must see the community as having potential rather than causing problems. Therefore, we must seek sustainable instead of temporary solutions," he said.
Both Andrea and Rosemann said that providing or improving proper housing was a part of a long-term economic strategy, meaning that the poor could free themselves from poverty on the basis of their own efforts.
Andrea, an Indonesian scholar who also teaches in TUDelft, was concerned that the architecture program in Indonesian universities hardly touched on social aspects of urban architecture.
"I hope participants of the workshop will have such social concerns when they become leaders in the future," he said, adding that TUDelft planned to arrange such a workshop annually, starting this year.