To protect Jakarta

To protect Jakarta

The government has announced that the weekend resort of
Puncak, south of Jakarta, which has been blamed for its part in
causing the flooding in the capital city, will be turned into a
conservation area.

This means that no more building permits will be issued in the
mountain resort area and that existing buildings for which there
are no permits will be demolished.

The government also announced that the Puncak plantations will
be turned into forest conservation sites as part of the program
to protect the capital against floods.

However, nothing major can be expected to come of all this
because most buildings there are covered by licenses.

The problem is that the whole Puncak strip has long since been
overcrowded. All the water that falls in the area runs down the
slopes of the hills and mountains into the rivers that wind
through Jakarta.

Efforts to bring order to the Puncak resort area can only help
save Jakarta if the majority of the bungalows and hotels there
are demolished. This is a really tough job and a very costly one.
Just to tear down the shanties along the 23 kilometers of river
bank in Jakarta cost the city administration Rp 1 trillion
(US$434,782,000).

Almost all the buildings in the Puncak area belong to rich
people who have their permanent residences in Jakarta. Based on
past experience, the demolition of those villas and bungalows is
nearly impossible, presumably because the owners enjoy the
protection of some powerful people.

When announcing the plan after meeting with President Soeharto
at the latter's residence here yesterday, the State Minister of
National Development Planning and Chairman of the National
Development Planning Board, Ginanjar Kartasasmita, asked
reporters the question: "Is there anyone more powerful than the
government?"

The obvious answer is, no. Yet, in the past, every time
demolition work was started in this area, the officers had to
face a strong wall of power. The usual thing that happened was
the local authorities pulled out first.

In fact, the policy, which was announced by Ginanjar
yesterday, is merely a repetition of an earlier one which the
government proclaimed in 1983, when President Soeharto signed a
decree to proclaim the mountain resort a watershed for rivers
flowing through the capital city.

Despite the decree, more and more building permits were issued
by the local administrators for new bungalows, although the
Directorate General of Agrarian Affairs of the Ministry of Home
Affairs had declared the Puncak area to be overexploited,
particularly in the matter of licensed land use.

Now with more, and increasingly devastating, floods hitting
Jakarta the authorities have realized that they must act now or
never, because the most recent disaster threatened the most
important parts of the city.

We sincerely hope that the government is serious this time.
However, it also has to take into account the fact that floods
here are not only caused by the water pouring down from Puncak
They are also due to the diminishing size of the water catchments
in the city itself.

The government should stop issuing building permits for
construction in open areas in Puncak and the capital itself and
revoke licenses which have not been used to ensure the safety of
Jakartans.