Squatters face survival in staunch solidarity

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.