Slum areas have plenty of potential to alleviate poverty

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.