The fruit of our sins

The fruit of our sins

Thursday's call by a number of non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) for the public to join them in taking action against those
parties they deem responsible for the environmental disaster that
befell thousands of residents -- especially those living along
the toll road connecting Jakarta with the Soekarno-Hatta
International Airport earlier this week -- comes as no surprise.

In fact, given the NGOs' early opposition to the Pantai Indah
Kapuk luxury housing development scheme on Jakarta's north coast,
which they hold responsible for the annually recurring floods in
the area, many people here are asking themselves what has taken
the NGOs so long to implement this long-awaited initiative.

After all, every year when the rainy season is about to begin,
Jakarta's residents brace themselves for the recurring floods
that seem to be getting worse and worse as the years go by. Now,
even a few hours of moderate monsoon showers cause parts of roads
to be inundated, which often causes traffic jams several
kilometers long. This is particularly true for the lower lying
areas along the north coast, of which the Pantai Kapuk area
adjoining the Soekarno-Hatta Airport is one.

Although accounts given by the officials of what actually
happened vary -- none of which, incidentally, puts the blame on
the administration -- it seems that Tuesday's disaster was
aggravated by residents, who were threatened with heavy flooding
of their area, breaching the dike that was built to protect the
toll road from being inundated by water flowing in from the
south. To make matters worse, the road itself is prone to sinking
some seven centimeters a year due to soil conditions.

Before the Pantai Indah Kapuk housing development project was
started about a decade ago, environmentalists had warned that any
damage to the coastal wetland environment in the area was bound
to have dire consequences in the future. Business and money
considerations, it seems, prevailed. Whole stretches of mangrove
stands, and a nature reserve as well, were cleared for
construction and marshland was reclaimed.

To critics expressing concern about the destruction of the
environment, the developer of the project retorted that he would
take full responsibility for his actions. "If it should be proved
in the future that those concerns are justified, I shall be
willing to face trial to take responsibility for my actions," he
said, as quoted by the newspaper Kompas.

After this week's disaster -- which was, by the way, not the
first to have occurred -- it seems that the time to take
responsibility has arrived. Compensation in cash could possibly
cover some of the damage inflicted on the population living in
the area. What is more difficult to see is how the 813.63
hectares of coastal wetland and mangrove stands can be restored
in time to prevent similar disasters in the foreseeable future.

And of course, too, the developer in question is not the only
person who should be held responsible. Every official in the
Jakarta administration who at the time granted permission for the
project to go ahead shares that responsibility.

Sadly, what is happening now in the Pantai Kapuk Indah area in
North Jakarta is merely one of many similar cases that are
playing out almost everywhere in this country at present, and
perhaps on a much larger scale. The unprecedented floods in North
Sumatra this week that left at least 13 people dead, for example,
would not have happened had Indonesians -- both inside and
outside the government -- had a better appreciation and a better
understanding of the irreplaceable worth of the natural
environment to our lives.

All this has been said before -- not once, but many times. But
given the consequences ignorance will most certainly bring for
future generations of Indonesians, we consider it worthwhile
saying it once again -- and again, until the message gets
through.