When swampy areas turn into housing estates

When swampy areas turn into housing estates

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta was once mostly marshland where
farmers grew rice and vegetables. But that has all changed.
Kelapa Gading is one of the fastest developing areas in the
capital, and shops, offices, malls and other commercial
businesses have come to dominate the landscape. The result of this
unchecked development has been flooding, which has left thousands
of Kelapa Gading residents bitter at the city administration's
negligence of the environment.

The district of Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta is one of the most
attractive places to work and live, as it is renown for its
shopping malls, trade centers and luxury housings.

This is a contrast to the situation in the 1980s, when the
majority of the district was dominated by swampy areas and
agricultural fields, where farmers planted rice and various kinds
of leafy vegetables.

Many people, including those living in the area, may not
realize the conversion of swamps and other wetlands into business
and residential plots is another example of policymakers'
negligence of the environment.

One of the effects of this negligence was the huge flood in
early 2002, which inundated their stylish houses with up to one
meter of water.

The development of the area into commercial and housing
estates was a violation by the city administration of the 2005
City Master Plan drafted in 1985. The master plan stipulated that
Kelapa Gading should not be developed into a commercial and
residential area unless flood infrastructure was available.

"While flood infrastructure, like the Eastern Flood Canal, has
not yet been constructed, Kelapa Gading has been built up with
residences and commercial places," Ahmad "Puput" Syafruddin,
Chairman of the Environment Task Force (ETF) told The Jakarta
Post.

This year, hundreds of Kelapa Gading residents still swallowed
the bitter consequences of the violation, as although the
rainfall was not so high nor heavy, dirty floodwaters still
entered their homes.

This time, floodwater did not inundate luxury houses, but did
flood those houses occupied by low-income families located in
subdistricts that are built on lower ground.

For environmentalists, the conversion of Kelapa Gading into
the current fast-growing district was another example of a crime
against the environment. Its accelerated development, however, is
not as serious as the development of the Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK)
exclusive housing estates in early 1990s, which was approved by
the city administration.

The PIK project, which converted hundreds of hectares of
swamps and protected forests into luxury homes, was a serious
environmental tragedy in the city, causing the loss of various
species in the areas.

The project was also blamed for the worsening floods in its
surrounding areas, including the flooding of the toll road
connecting the city with Soekarno-Hatta airport.

"Violating the land allocation as stated in the (1985-1995)
City Master Plan was not a big deal for the city's leaders, as
they considered it to be a 'dead document' which could easily be
replaced by another document, if necessary," Syafruddin added.

In fact, in an effort to "legalize" various violations of the
Master Plan -- like the Kelapa Gading development, as well as the
construction of Hotel Mulia and shopping malls in Senayan in
Central Jakarta, and the Taman Anggrek shopping mall and
condominiums in West Jakarta -- the city issued another City
Master Plan.

The revised City Master Plan issued in 1999, known as the 2010
City Master Plan, clearly denotes Kelapa Gading as a part of the
city which could be developed into housings, industrial areas and
trade centers.

A historical mistake was not the only blunder, as there were
many violations and inconsistencies during the development of
Kelapa Gading, which territory was formerly part of Koja
district, North Jakarta.

Based on stipulations as to land use in Kelapa Gading in
Gubernatorial Decree no. 1516/1997, the land allocation for
housings until 2005, for example, is 558.04 hectares, or 4
percent of its total territory of 16,330 hectares.

A survey conducted by the North Jakarta City Planning Office
in 2000 showed that existing residential areas occupied 585.04
hectares of land, exceeding the land allotted in the decree by 27
hectares.

Another survey in 2002 revealed that residential areas in the
district now measured 5,850.412 hectares, or 35.83 percent of the
total territory of Kelapa Gading.

These figures blatantly contradict the aim of the subdistrict
to develop green areas.

The survey also showed that existing green areas in the
district covered 714.1 hectares, or 4.37 percent of the total
territory. The green areas consist of recreation areas and sports
grounds (41.6 hectares) and waterways and water ponds (672.5
hectares).

According to the land use decree, Kelapa Gading should develop
58.14 hectares of parks and accompanying facilities and 58.24
hectares of other green areas such as cemeteries and recreation
areas. With the development of these facilities, it was expected
that green areas would cover 7.22 percent of the district by
2005.

So far, however, none of these facilities have been developed.
Moreover, a target of 7.22 percent of green areas is far from
what is set in the 2010 City Master Plan.

The Master Plan allocates 13.94 percent of the total area of
the city toward green areas, but even this is far from the ideal
figure of 30 percent.