Work and live here but don't die in Jakarta
Work and live here but don't die in Jakarta
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
You may work and live in Jakarta, but when it comes to deciding where you will be buried, the city should be a last resort. The reason is you will never find a tranquil resting place in the capital.
Head of the Jakarta Cemetery Office Dadang Kadarusman said on Friday that the city was running out of space to bury some 150 people who die every day or some 54,000 per year.
Dadang said that the city, which has a land area of 65,680 hectares, owns 785 hectares of land designated for cemeteries, of which 575 hectares has been used.
"Unfortunately, most of the 210-hectare space across the city is still in need of reclamation because most of it is in swampy areas," Dadang said.
According to him, the city will run out of space in 10 years should there be no significant measures taken to deal with the problem.
If every single body needs 3.75 square meters, the city needs 202,500 square meters or 20.25 hectares a year.
"It means that we will run out of space to bury people within 10 years," he sighed.
"The administration won't expand the space allotted for cemeteries due to limited space in the city. We are afraid that if we provide more space for cemeteries, the city will turn into a city of the dead instead of a metropolis," he said half- jokingly.
He said that so far there were three options amid such spatial constraints -- bury them in their hometowns, cremate the body or bury it in a common grave with other family members who have passed away earlier.
Unfortunately, few people are willing to bury the dead in their hometowns because of prohibitive transportation costs, while cremation is not an option for the majority of Muslims.
"Placing family members in a single grave or stacking them up is the most preferable option so far. That will also benefit the surviving family members since that makes the rental fee lower as one space is used as opposed to several places," he said.
The administration requires the surviving relatives of people buried in city cemeteries to pay between Rp 4,000 and Rp 100,000 every three years in rental fees.
Jakarta Cemetery Office spokesman Muhadi AS said that out of 95 cemeteries across the capital, four cemeteries had run out of space, including Karet Bivak cemetery in Central Jakarta, which only allows surviving relatives to bury the deceased in existing graves.
Meanwhile, head of Pondok Kelapa cemetery in East Jakarta Syafei Saidi said his office had buried 2,700 bodies in existing family graves.
"It means that we have managed to save 10,125 square meters," he said.