Toll road, housing blamed for floods
Annastashya Emmanuelle, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
State Minister of the Environment Nabiel Makarim has said the construction of both the toll road, which leads to the Soekarno- Hatta airport and the Pantai Indah Kapuk real estate are a cause of the city's flooding problems.
"The establishment of the real estate was opposed by Emil Salim (former minister of the environment). Both projects should never have taken place," Nabiel told a media conference after accompanying past winners of the Kalpataru Award to meet President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Thursday.
The Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK) waterfront complex was built on 800 hectares of formerly protected mangrove forest in West Jakarta. It has caused flooding due to the reclamation of the swamp by its developer, PT Mandara Permai.
Despite persistent criticisms from environmental activists, the city's environmental impact agency (BAPEDALDA) approved the establishment of the real estate in 1995.
Since then the Sedyatmo toll road, which leads to the airport, has always been deluged after heavy rain. The toll operator has elevated the freeway from its original construction, but Nabil, however, doubts its effectiveness.
The developer of PIK has denied allegations that its project has caused flooding on the toll road.
As for the regular flooding in the rest of the capital, which has always left hundreds of houses inundated and caused major traffic congestion, Nabiel blamed the development of water catchment areas in and around the city, including in Bogor and Puncak, West Java, for the sake of villa construction.
"It is impossible to avoid flooding now ... we can only take preventive action after the rainy season is over," he added.
One of the solutions, Nabiel asserted, was to plant trees for water catchment, although the effort would not pay off in the immediate future.
"Planting trees would at least curb the potential for flooding. But this process will take some time as we must wait for the trees to grow," he said.
He said flooding in certain areas across the country was also inevitable due to environmental degradation and would only ease after the rainy season had ended.