Plis Deh Jakarta!

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo has thumbed his nose at a Supreme Court ruling and said the city will forge ahead with a major sea reclamation project. (JG Photo/Jurnasyanto Sukarno)

Bang Foke is pushing ahead with the sea reclamation project in North Jakarta, despite environmental experts saying that it will be disastrous, and even despite blocks from the State Ministry of the Environment and the Supreme Court.

In a somewhat signature act of far-flung vision with terrible planning, the outgoing governor, Sutiyoso, launched the city water taxis in June 2007, spending Rp 200 billion on the facilities with a pilot project serving a 1.7 km route with two 28-person boats. So where is it now?

The first few trips failed when, among others, garbage got stuck in the boat’s rotors. This, and not to mention that apparently not all of Ciliwung River can be dredged to serve such a water transport service.

So Rp 200 billion and ambition = nothing happening.

Two boys sift through discarded waste floating on a river in Jakarta on Friday. (Photo: Adek Berry, Reuters) - The Jakarta Globe

So apparently, Jakarta has won 5 Adipura awards, which are awards issued for environmental awareness. All 5 Jakarta municipalities given the awards were the ones who managed to keep their areas clean, and supposedly being the greenest and cleanest in Indonesia.

Perhaps they kept the streets clean by sweeping everything into the river…

About a week ago, Tangerang residents protesting the disrepair of a long-ignored, damaged part of road, took one of the larger potholes, and turned it into a pond.

And when the authorities were asked of their response to the citizen’s protest? “We sent three letters.”

Well at least Tangerang gets a new lake/pond to replace their missing ones.

To declare their alliance for the upcoming presidential elections, the Megawati-Prabowo election team has selected the Bantar Gebang dumpsite for the location, for some sort of PR effect – I think they want to be seen as ‘close to the people’.

Yet I guess their definition of ‘leave the dumpsite as it has always been’ means setting up a huge stage and tent, placing down a walkway made of placing blocks, and so on, and is actually a few hundred meters from the actual dumpsite.

The only thing they did not try to get rid of was the smell – hopefully the smell is enough for the campaign team to not just make this into a PR event, but something to act on.

Last month, the government unveiled their plan to make Jakarta flood-free by 2025.

Yipeee. What do we do for the intervening 16 years? But to give the government some credit, the plan is seemingly comprehensive… then again, I have never seen any project continued consistently for 4 years, let alone 16. I’m not even sure if they have integrated this into other grand plans i.e. overhauling the public transport network, creation of cheaper housing complexes and so on.

But hey kids, there’s always something we can do, right? Like making sure we dont litter the rivers in the first place.

Here-s another precious headlne – City To Keep Close Eye On Pigs. So fellas, don’t be such a pig, the city is watching!

Anyway. The controversy around swine flu had spread so fast and inaccurately, leading many to believe that eating pork would give you swine flu; or keeping pigs around would elevate the risk (as it is with bird flu). Well, no – the so-called ‘swine flu’ is simply named that way because it is a new mutation that predominantly contains strands from influenza that affects pigs. So it’s not because of working with, or eating, pig. And it certainly has no relevance on having a pig of an attitude or not.

So reading back on the earlier article, even the government has misunderstood…

Upon my return to Jakarta, I posted this statement through Twitter:

These are some of the responses I received:

But seriously – we might be in the business capital of Indonesia, but it doesn’t mean we have to wear three-piece suits at the office and turn the aircon down really low to justify it? I’m not saying that Jakarta has to revert to bikinis or swimsuits, but we really should dress to match the climate – it’s just healthier. That way, those aircons don’t have to be turned on so low (although, some women dress like they’re at the beach in the malls, which is beyond me) and we can save energy, thus holding off global warming for a bit. 

I think the teeming masses of office workers have forgotten that we live in a tropical area. Maybe it’s because the office buildings seem like they’re in the mountains.

The Tangerang municipality is apparently so busy with other stuff they actually have lost things as large as lakes. Blaming the law that does not give authority to the muncipalilty to manage the lakes (which supposedly are the authority of the central government), several lakes are in poor condition and some have disappeared due to development of roads, buildings and the like. So the municipality will do an inventory of the lakes soon. Sorry man, that sounds ridiculous, it seems like you’re talking about a missing box of pencils or something.

The muncipality is not entirely to blame, though, as the citizens are also the ones who falter – some reclaim land for development (as land that was once a lake has no certificate), and others simply dump their garbage in. So after 60 plus years of independence, we really haven’t changed much, have we?

Tangerang has agreed to allocate land for construction of a garbage processing site for Jakarta’s trash. So Tangerang will turn away couples looking for a place to have premarital sex and even women walking alone at night, but will accept trash.

The Tangerang authorities really know how to make their city comfortable, don’t they?

A group of experts has stated that Jakarta needs planning supervision.

Really? You think? It’s too bad these experts aren’t helping the government do what they suggest… yet. Let’s hope they do, or else more ‘slap on a band-aid’ programs, like some sections of the Transjakarta busway, will happen; or the same roads will have the same potholes all over again at the same time of year, despite repeated repairs.

The construction of Ayodya Park, at the former location of Barito’s flower market, is apparently for expatriates’ recreational space.

I guess since Indonesians are all stuffed to the brim in malls, they won’t need alternative recreational space (except for reading, perhaps). We love our malls more than we love our parks… erm, what parks, anyway?

Roman-era public works for water distribution:

Aquaduct, from http://historyrocks.wordpress.com

Jakarta-era water distribution system:

Water web:: A man walks under hoses at Mawar Apartment in Penjaringan, North Jakarta. Residents living in the apartment’s upper floors use jet pumps and hoses to channel water to their apartment units. (JP/Hasyim Widhiarto)