Water catchment rule hard to uphold

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration has found it difficult to keep South Jakarta as the city's water catchment area because the government's rules on housing development do not support the policy.

The regulations require residents to set aside up to 80 percent of their land as open space to allow water to seep into the ground.

During a fact-finding visit yesterday, city councilors found that many people had limited plots of land so that they cannot earmark more than half of their land for a garden as required.

M. Aman, Chairman of the council's commission A, which oversees government affairs, told reporters that heavy population pressure had made it difficult to preserve the area as a water catchment zone.

"Many people have very small plots of land and we understand that they have no choice but to use almost all of it to build," he said.

As a water catchment area, housing development in South Jakarta has been strictly regulated. The area is supposed to "catch" water from "rain town" Bogor and its surrounding regencies.

In certain areas, such as the Jagakarsa subdistrict, the city administration allows residents to build on only 20 percent of their plots of land.

Aman said that many people had only 100 square meters of land and that, if the regulation were to be strictly enforced, they would only be able to build on an area of 20 square meters.

"That is a problem. If the government was strict about the regulation, people would ask why they are not allowed to build bigger house on their own land," Aman said.

Aman said the mayoralty had two proposals for the overcoming of the problem but that both should be carefully analyzed before being put into practice.

First, he said, the city administration could designate certain open places as water catchment areas and allow unrestricted building elsewhere.

"The water catchment area would be controlled and financed by the city administration and could be used as parkland or sports fields," Aman said.

The second idea, Aman said, was that people be allowed to build on more than 20 percent of their land but would be required to build elevated houses so that the land underneath could still catch water.

Aman said the commission had recommended that an in-depth study be carried out before the mayoralty implemented either of the two proposals, given that the city administration's budget was not sufficient to carry out the first proposal.

He said the mayoralty should also find out whether elevated houses were acceptable to the residents, since such raised houses might be considered an oddity in Jakarta. (yns)