Uncontrolled erosion deplored

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Last year nearly 200 tons of land per hectare was washed away in the Bogor and Cianjur regencies, which serve as water catchment areas for Jakarta.

Legal Aid institute (LBH) Cianjur chapter special division head Iwan Permana said the figures meant that every year, about 501,800 tons of mud entered the Ciliwung river and Cisadane river, which made the rivers shallow.

It all happened because of the uncontrolled development of land in the area, he told Antara.

There are at least 54 luxury real estate and housing complexes in the Bogor and Cianjur regencies, even though the areas have long been designated as catchment areas for low-land Jakarta. The first regulation was issued by former president Sukarno in 1963.

The matter was also stipulated in a joint ministerial decree involving the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Public Works (now the Ministry of Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure) and the Ministry of Forestry.

And also in a decree issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, instruction letters to the West Java Governor and the enacting of several bylaws.

"But they failed to control the construction of luxury buildings in the area," Iwan said.

He said that the floods that hit the capital had long been predicted and it was acknowledged that the destruction of the upper reaches of the Ciliwung river and Cisadane river would mean they overflowed.

Minister of Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure Soenarno said on Wednesday that the regional autonomy law could hinder efforts to seek a comprehensive solution to Jakarta's flood problems as a separate administration might have its own interests at stake.

Cianjur, for example, could receive around Rp 2 billion a year for issuing the building permits.