Squatters face survival in staunch solidarity
Damar Harsanto, Jakarta
The World Population Day passed unobserved last Sunday in the capital city, where over 100,000 poor families live in temporary houses, or even in cardboard boxes, on riverbanks or beneath overpasses.
To make things worse, the city administration has blamed annual flooding and the worsening condition of overpasses and bridges on squatters.
Those who live on the banks of Ciliwung river in Bukit Duri, and in Kampung Pulo, South Jakarta, ask that they not be treated as second-class citizens just because they can't afford better homes.
"We have built our own system of survival ... especially against floods," Yanti, 23, a squatter, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
She said the residents disposed of their domestic waste at a temporary dump nearby, and not in the river as alleged by the city administration.
"Each family also pays the subdistrict office a fee for garbage collection of between Rp 2,000 and Rp 3,000 per month."
Yanti added that, since last month, the squatters had started to produce compost from their domestic waste.
Another squatter, Rina, 25, said that flooding was a major threat, second only to eviction, "as it is unpredictable".
Rina said that prior notices provided by subdistrict officials were mostly inaccurate or unclear.
"That's why we rely more on own system, such as having a night watch to monitor the water level," said Rina who has lived there since the early 1980s.
They even have a contingency plan, whereby they should move their goods and find temporary shelter, find food and medicine, and hand-in-hand rebuild damaged and destroyed homes.
The city administration was criticized for its failure to provide an early warning and immediate help when massive flooding occurred between January and February 2002. The flood affected most parts of the city; thirty people died and 300,000 residents were forced to leave their homes for shelters.
Despite all the trouble, the Ciliwung community prefers to stay put, rejecting the administration's offer to relocate them to low-cost apartments, or to another island outside Java.
"Many of us use our home as our workplace, like as a butchers. How can we run our business from an apartment?" Yanti remarked.
"Moreover, some of us, who tried our luck and moved to Riau province in the mid-1980s have returned with sad stories to tell. None of us wants to take up the migration offer."
To further nurture the solidarity among them, the community has even set up small cooperatives -- each involve at least 10 families -- which provide members with low-interest loans.
"It would be better for us to stay together, striving to solve our problems here, rather than moving out," Yanti said.