Water catchment rule hard to uphold

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)