Two RI projects win Fiabci awards

Andi Haswidi, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua | Sat, 05/29/2010 10:53 AM

The International Real Estate Federation (Fiabci) has chosen 12 winners and 12 runners up from 54 nominees as recipients of the most prestigious award in the property industry, the Fiabci’s Prix d’Excellence Awards.

Regatta the Icon, a collaboration between home developers PT Intiland and PT Global Eka Buana, emerged as the winner of the Bali Congress Award, a category made especially for the 61st Fiabci World Congress, held in Nusa Dua, Bali, from Thursday to Friday.

Another project in Indonesia, the Jakarta Garden City by PT Mitra Sindo Sukses, was named the second-best low-rise residential complex in the world in this year’s accolade.

The Regatta is a property development that includes 10 apartment towers with an aqua park, hotel and a serviced apartment, located on an 11-hectare plot at Pantai Mutiara beach in Ancol, North Jakarta.

The structure was designed by Tom Wright of Atkins, an architecture design consultant based in Epsom, United Kingdom, that is famous for global landmark buildings such as the Burj al Arab in Dubai.

President of the Fiabci Prix d’Excellence Awards 2010, Yeow Thit Sang, said the purpose of the awards was to encourage property developers to continue innovating while maintaining high standards.

“Indeed, the quality of the projects submitted prior to the competition was of a very high standard,” Yeow said.

One fact that stood out was that the environmental assessment category counted for more this year, up to 25 percent from 20 percent last year.

Johannes Tulung, head of the environmental issues at the Indonesia Real Estate Association said that the winners had been selected in a transparent process where each judge on the panal evaluated each project independently.

“It means that we don’t know who the other judges are. I was assigned to evaluate a project without knowing who the other judges were,” he said.

The winning projects were from 11 countries. Asia contributed the most nominations with 40 projects from eight countries, followed by Europe with 11 projects from two countries, and the United States with two projects.

The independent judges are real estate industry professionals from 18 countries. Among them were presidents of a number of Fiabci chapters in different areas, former Fiabci presidents and reputable property professionals such as architects, surveyors, appraisers and developers.

The committee chairman of the 61st Fiabci World Congress Bali, Pingki Elka Pangestu, said Indonesia had had a large number of properties evaluated for the esteemed accolade.

Some of those constructions, Pingki said, were of excellent quality, boasting world-class designs and building material.

“I also believe that the Prix d’Excellence is an effective way to improve consumers’ confidence in getting the best products,” Pingki concluded.

Indonesia Needs ‘Rational’ Planning to Fight Urban Sprawl: Boediono

Jakarta Globe, Camelia Pasandaran, May 28, 2010

Vice President Boediono says new estates are springing up to meet growing demand without taking infrastructure needs into consideration. (Antara Photo)

Nusa Dua, Bali. Vice President Boediono on Thursday called for the central and local governments to adopt a more “rational” approach while developing a grand strategy for urban planning, especially in housing.

Boediono said such an approach was needed to mitigate the undesirable effects of the rapid urbanization resulting from surging economic development.

“We often feel and see that the growth of housing in Indonesia has no clear and rational design,” he said. “Numbers-wise, the growing demand is being met, but it is growth without rational design.”

He was speaking at the opening of the International Real Estate Federation’s (FIABCI) 61st world congress in Bali. The congress adopted the theme of Save the World: Green Shoots for Sustainable Real Estate. It focused on eco-property, green tourism, nature’s limits and opportunities and innovations in real estate.

“We need to evaluate whether [development] is sustainable for the middle and long term as housing sustainability is important for all of us, not only for the government but also the industry and the people,” Boediono said.

The housing sector has become one of the main drivers of economic development, contributing 9.3 percent of GDP and 73 percent of total investment last year.

Boediono acknowledged that it had direct and indirect effects on economic growth and was a major source of income for the central and regional governments.

Not surprisingly, most growth in the sector comes in urban areas. Government data shows that between 1995 and 2005 the urban population grew 55 percent, which caused a corresponding massive increase in demand for housing.

“We realize that housing development is one important aspect for us in tackling the poverty problem, mainly in urban areas,” Boediono said.

“Many developing countries, including Indonesia, have a combination of strong demand, incoherent national policies and weak urban development plans that cannot cope with the situation. This is not a sustainable combination and it is our job to fix it.”

Commenting on Boediono’s criticism, Public Housing Minister Suharso Monoarfa said the central and regional governments should work together to integrate the housing sector into the broader urban planning process.

“The housing sector is developing regardless of urban planning,” he said. “It should be part of a city’s whole development, a key factor in urban policy.”

He said he would support all regions in revamping their urban planning by introducing effective bylaws.

“Housing should not be scattered. We should follow the plans that we have tended to ignore,” Suharso said.

Boediono went a step further, saying there should be a grand strategy for urban planning, including coordination between the housing sector and infrastructure development.

“The impact will be huge if we fail to do this,” he said. “People are reluctant to commute because it takes them so long because there is no coordination between the transportation system and housing needs. According to surveys, in many big cities transportation costs are becoming families’ biggest expense.”

Boediono said the government should also address the country’s sharp economic growth cycles when developing a planning strategy.

“In Indonesia, if GDP increases, the housing and construction sectors grow faster than GDP, and when the GDP takes a downward turn, those sectors contract faster than the economy,” he said.

“This is our national economic problem and we have to reduce the sharp fluctuations of the housing and construction sector. For that reason, government should try to balance the need to speed up the supply of shelter to meet the large demand while avoiding bubbles that could create a crisis and affect the economy.”

Raw water reaching new pollution-level highs

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 05/27/2010 10:09 AM

The majority of Jakartans make their own drinking water by boiling tap water, while others buy bottled water.

The common method of boiling water is both a waste of energy and also proof that the majority of city dwellers are aware that their tap water is not safe for drinking.

“People need to take a long, hard look at what makes treated water in Jakarta not potable,” Firdaus Ali, a hydrologist from the University of Indonesia, told The Jakarta Post recently.

He explained that the majority of the city’s tap water supply originated as raw water that was siphoned from the Jatiluhur dam in West Java and piped to various water treatment plants.

“Stored water at the Jatiluhur dam is channeled through three canals, the North, East and West Tarum Canals, the last of which provides a supposedly consistent supply of water for drinking and irrigation to Jakarta and Bekasi,” he said, adding that the raw water from the dam was reasonably clean.

However, he said, the problems began when the raw water entered the West Tarum Canal, a 70-kilometer-long open waterway that intersects the Cibeet, Cikarang and Bekasi rivers, all of which are heavily polluted with human and animal feces, industrial effluents and untreated domestic sewage.

“On its route to the city, the raw water becomes highly polluted, and it needs to be processed and purified at water treatment plants,” he said.

He said the canal’s capacity to transport water was decreasing due to a build up of rubbish and other pollutants, deteriorating banks that were falling into the canal and sediment accumulation on the canal bed.

Water treatment in Jakarta is managed by two private water tap operators, PT Aetra Air Jakarta and PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja).

Both own a number of large water treatment installations, including those in Pejompongan, West Jakarta, and in Buaran and Pulogadung, East Jakarta, where the quality and the quantity of water supply are monitored hourly.

Together, these water treatment plants across the city must provide a constant production capacity

of 17,800 liters per second, or equivalent to 1.54 billion liters of water per day, to meet the demand of roughly 800,000 tap water subscribers.

However, the plants are failing to provide enough clean water to the ever-increasing population of Jakarta.

According to a water expert, the city needs an average of 200 liters of water per day per person, or 2 billion liters per day for the approximately 10 million people living in the capital.

According to Aetra Air Jakarta’s director of business services, Rhamses Simanjuntak, the first step at a water treatment plant is siphoning off solid waste from the raw water via filtration. The water is then treated with coagulants to rid it of smaller particles that were not filtered out.

The untreated water from the canal is so severely contaminated that it fails to meet the raw water minimum standards laid out in the 1995 Gubernatorial Decree No. 582.

The decree requires that raw water have a turbidity level of about 100 NTU (nephelometric turbidity units).

However, the canal water’s turbidity level can reach 28,000 NTU on some days, an increase of 2,800 percent compared to 1987 levels of about 1,000 NTU.

The higher the turbidity level, the greater the risk that a person can develop gastrointestinal diseases.

“Chlorine is added to kill microorganisms before the water reaches the public,” Rhamses told the Post, adding that when the purification process was complete, the water was drinkable.

However, Firdaus, who is also a board member of the Jakarta Water Supply Regulatory Body, said that the potable water was then re-contaminated by chemicals and microorganisms on its way to customers due to filthy or damaged distribution pipes.

“Many distribution pipes can be as old as 60 years, and are made from DCP [duct cast-iron pipes] and steel that are very prone to chemical abrasion, meaning they are susceptible to changes in water pressure, which is one of the major causes of leakages,” he said. (tsy)

Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran top world disaster risk rankings

Google/AFP

PARIS — Bangladesh, Indonesia and Iran are the countries that are the most vulnerable to natural disasters, according to a study released on Thursday.

Asia's twin giants, China and India, join them in the 15 countries that, out of 229, are rated as "extreme" risk.

The Natural Disasters Risk Index (NDRI) is compiled by a British risk advisory firm, Maplecroft, on the basis of disasters that occurred from 1980 to 2010.

It draws on a basket of indicators, including the number and frequency of these events, the total deaths that were caused and the death toll as a proportion of the country's population.

Disasters include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, storms, flooding, drought, landslides, heatwaves and epidemics.

"Poverty is an important factor in countries where both the frequency and impacts of natural disasters are severe," said Maplecroft's environmental analyst, Anna Moss.

"Poor infrastructure, plus dense overcrowding in high-risk areas like flood plains, river banks, steep slopes and reclaimed land, continually result in high casualty figures."

According to the NDRI's figures, Bangladesh has suffered more than 191,000 fatalities as a result of natural disasters in the past 30 years, and Indonesia a nearly equal number, the vast majority of which were inflicted by the December 2004 tsunami.

In Iran, the big vulnerability factor is earthquakes, which claimed 74,000 lives over this period.

India, ranked 11th, lost 141,000 lives -- including 50,000 to earthquakes, 40,000 to floods, 15,000 to epidemics and 23,000 to storms -- while the tally in China, rated 12th, was 148,000 lives, of which 87,000 were lost in the 2008 Sichuan quake.

Three G8 countries are considered "high risk," the next category down from "extreme."

They are France (17th in the overall rankings) and Italy (18th), which were hit by killer heatwaves in 2003 and 2006, and the United States (37th), whacked by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The countries least at risk are Andorra, Bahrain, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Qatar, San Marino and the United Arab Emirates.

Moss pointed to experts' warnings of the impact of climate change on rainfall. Disruption of weather patterns is predicted to lead to more frequent and bigger episodes of drought and flood.

"Our research highlights the need for even the wealthiest countries to focus on disaster risk reduction," she said.

Related Article:

Indonesia Ranks as Second-Riskiest Place in World for Natural Disasters

Earthquake-Resistant Bricks Not Yet Patented

Tempo Interactive, Wednesday, 26 May, 2010 | 16:31 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Madiun:Earthquake-resistant bricks made by two students from High School Number 5 in Madiun, East Java, Nina Milasari, 17, and Christina Kartika Bintang Dewi, 15, have not been patented yet. “We have plans to patent them, but our primary mission is that these bricks can be utilized by the people,” said Imam Zuhri, a physics teacher at the school, yesterday.

Their discovery won them a gold medal in the environmental physics category in the International Environmental Project Olympiad 2010 for 13 to 18 year-old students in Istanbul, Turkey, on May 19 to 22.

Nina said their goal is merely to contribute something to the people. “It is up to the school whether to patent it or not,” she said.

ISHOMUDDIN

Minister: Women’s role in water management ignored

Dina Indrasafitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 05/26/2010 6:24 PM

Women have a major role in water management and conservation, but are often excluded from the effort, a minister says.

Women could help conserve, recycle and save water during shortages in Indonesia, said Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Linda Amalia Sari Gumelar at a water conservation workshop in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Women could teach their children about the importance of protecting the environment and the maintaining the ecosystem’s balance, Linda said.

“That’s why women’s participation in environmental conservation is highly significant,” she added.

Firdaus Ali, a water expert for the University of Indonesia, said that a large part of Indonesia’s water supply is used domestically and that women were responsible for two-thirds of home water use.

City told to learn hard way to solve water woes

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 05/26/2010 10:17 AM

The city administration has to take a long, hard look at more alternative, sustainable approaches to overcoming the city’s water scarcity and other water-related problems, experts say.

“One of the alternatives is to make full use of the capital’s 13 major rivers, such as Ciliwung and Cipinang rivers, which could serve as potential raw water resources,” hydro-geologist Fatchy Muhammad, told The Jakarta Post recently.

However, another expert, Wijanto Hadipuro, warned that business-wise, focusing on obtaining water resources from the rivers would be costly, as most rivers were very polluted.

Wijanto suggested the problem could be solved if tap water operators, as in many other countries, were responsible not only for water management, but also for providing comprehensive sanitation solutions.

“Political will and a paradigm shift in water management is needed to deal with the city’s new risks and uncertainties in water provision,” said Fatchy from the Indonesian Water Society.

Fatchy said building catchment areas such as water reservoirs for rainfall could also serve as an effective supplement to secure water in the future.

Jakarta is facing the issue of water security on an unprecedented scale, as supplies of raw water from Jatiluhur dam in West Java, which has been constant at 17,800 liters per second since 1998, is barely sufficient to meet the clean water demand of the city’s ever-increasing population.

Fatchy estimated the city needed an average of 200 liters of water per day per person, or the equivalent of 730 billion liters per year for its approximately 10 million residents — a volume that is still far from its current total annual water supply of 561.34 billion liters.

He also explained that Jakarta’s annual rainfall of 2,500 millimeters per year, if contained in reservoirs, could serve as a new resource that could be managed by the city’s water tap operators.

Jakarta still highly dependent on water from Jatiluhur dam, managed by state-owned enterprise PT Perum Jasa Tirta (PJT) II, which has been recently blamed by the city’s private water tap operators for failing to provide good quality water and for its residents.

Wijanto, who is also an economist and hydrologist from the Amrta Institute for Water Literacy, said that in order to secure good quality water from the dam, the government and the city administration needed to fix and clean the headwaters of the Citarum River in West Java.

Highly toxic pollutants such as total coliform bacteria, which is present in the environment and in the feces of all warm-blooded animals and humans, has been found in the river.

He also believed that Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology and recycling industrial waste could provide another alternative water source.

“We heard that RO was very expensive in the past, but I met with some people from the Bandung Institute of Technology who said the high-priced RO membranes could be substituted with cheaper materials, therefore, making the technological costs very competitive,” he said.

RO technology makes clean water by forcing seawater through plastic membranes with microscopic pores.

The membranes extract dissolved salts, while excess silt is removed with chemicals. (tsy)

Komodo dragon attacks man in Indonesia: police

mysinchew.com, 2010-05-24 17:19

KUPANG, May 24 (AFP) - A komodo dragon attacked an Indonesian man as he ate lunch at a building site on one of the giant lizards' protected island habitats, police said Monday.

Construction worker Agustinus Jenaru, 20, was having a meal break when the powerful monitor, apparently attracted by the smell of food, crept up from behind and bit him on the arm, police official Mega Laksana Putra said.

"The man screamed for help. He put up a struggle and managed to free himself," Putra said.

There are no medical facilities on Rinca, a komodo sanctuary in eastern Indonesia, so Jenaru was flown to hospital on Bali island, he said.

Until recently komodos were believed to hunt with a "bite and wait" strategy using toxic bacteria in their saliva to weaken or kill their prey, before descending in numbers to feast.

But in 2005 researchers found that dragons' jaws are armed with highly sophisticated poison glands that can cause paralysis, spasms and shock through haemorrhaging.

The world's largest monitor lizard, komodos can grow up to three metres (10 feet) and weigh up to 140 kilograms (310 pounds). They are unique to a small group of islands in eastern Indonesia.

Jenaru hit the jaws of the giant lizard for several seconds until it freed him (telegraph.co.uk)

Related Article:

Builder fends off Komodo dragon by punching it in nose

Asia-Pacific countries support APMCHUD in Solo

Antara News, Monday, May 24, 2010 11:23 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Asia-Pacific countries have expressed support for the holding of the Asia Pacific Ministers` Conference on Housing and Urban Development (APMCHUD) in Solo, Central Java, on June 22-24, an official said.

The support was reflected by the enthusiasm of their ambassadors and representatives during an embassy briefing held at the Public Housing Ministry here last week on preparations for the conference, Iskandar Saleh, the ministry`s secretary, said on Sunday.

"They enthusiastically attended the briefing. This is part of the joint efforts to face and address problems related to urban housing and development," he said.

Their participation in the conference was motivated by common awareness and commitment to address urban challenges in a sustainable way, said Iskandar, who is also second vice chairman of the event`s organizing committee.

In the past few decades the Asia-Pacific countries had seen rapid urban development, he said.

Quoting a UN report, he said nearly 50 percent of the world`s population currently live in urban areas. The figure is expected to increase to 60 percent in 2030 and more than a half of them will live in the Asia-Pacific region.

The rapid urban development without proper management would have a negative impact on many things, including air pollution, and water supply, he said.

Jakarta Water Shortages a ‘Warning’ of Worse to Come

Jakarta Globe. Arientha Primanita, May 10, 2010

The recent water shortages that hit much of Jakarta should serve as a wake-up call for the authorities to start considering sustainable alternatives, experts said on Sunday.

For much of last week, water supplies to much of the capital were slashed by up to 40 percent because of severe silting in the Jatiluhur Dam.

Firdaus Ali, a member of the city water operator regulatory body, said such shortages had occurred annually for the past 15 years, as the availability of clean water for all of Java was being overwhelmed by demand.

The island accounts for just 7 percent of the country’s land mass and 6.45 percent of its fresh water, but 65 percent of its population, or about 15 million people.

“The imbalance has resulted in the massive exploitation of groundwater, which in turn has led to land subsidence,” Firdaus said.

Jakarta alone requires at least 1 billion cubic meters of water a year for domestic and industrial use, he said.

Jatiluhur supplies 82 percent of the city’s water, while the rest comes from the Cisadane and Krukut rivers in Tangerang.

Thirteen rivers crisscross the capital, but all are heavily polluted and their water is not suitable for consumption.

Up to 78 percent of the city’s waterways are heavily polluted, according to 2006 data from the Jakarta Environmental Management Body.

“Only the Krukut River is still relatively clean, but it only provides 2.2 percent of fresh water needs,” Firdaus said.

“That’s nowhere near enough to meet the city’s needs.”

He said the only viable long-term solution would be to clean up the 13 rivers that run through the capital, which would take a major commitment from both the city administration and the central government.

“Once the rivers are healthy again, we can use them as a source of fresh water,” he said, adding that a dedicated waste-collection center was needed to keep trash out of rivers.

The middle-term plan, Firdaus said, is to siphon off 4,000 liters of water a second from Jatiluhur exclusively for drinking water for the capital.

“The least we can do is to save water and pray that Jakarta doesn’t sink beneath its own weight,” he said.

Land subsidence due to massive groundwater extraction reaches up to 20 centimeters a year in some areas, he said.

If this trend continued, by 2050 the city’s coastline would be in the Semanggi area in Central Jakarta.

“We have the regulations in place to limit groundwater extraction, but the enforcement needs to be strengthened to ensure consumers comply,” Firdaus said, referring to a 2009 gubernatorial decree on the ground water-removal rate.

Hamong Santono, executive director of the People’s Coalition for Water Rights (Kruha), said the water crisis highlighted the need for better water management and alternatives.

He singled out the exclusive dependency on supplies from Jatiluhur and Tangerang as being of significant concern.

“Being reliant on just two sources of water is very dangerous,” he said. “It’s high time that Jakarta began looking at other sources.”

In the meantime, Hamong said, the city’s water operators should make the most of their supplies by reducing losses.

City councilor Selamat Nurdin also called for alternative water sources, saying a breakthrough was needed.

“We can look into reverse-osmosis technology or desalination plants,” he said.

The councilor conceded that the initial capital investment for such schemes would be high, but said they would pay off in the long run and ensure a long-term supply for the capital.

Another councilor, Muhammad Sanusi, urged more stringent enforcement of water regulations by the city administration.

“The water operators must minimize their losses,” he told the Jakarta Globe.

“If they can manage this properly, I’m sure they’ll be able to meet the city’s water demands.”

Sanusi also suggested that the newly built East Flood Canal be considered a potential source of fresh water.

The canal is designed to channel excess rainwater and runoff out to sea.

Water crisis overshadows Jakarta

Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 05/08/2010 10:11 AM

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo has urged tap water operators to resume normal supply as a shortage is forcing affected residents to rely on neighbors and pay extra costs to access clean water.

For the last three days, Suryadi, 80, from Petamburan, Central Jakarta, and his family of 11 have been forced to bathe at their neighbor’s house, which has access to groundwater.

“We even pay for gallons of water for cooking,” Suryadi said.

In Palmerah subdistrict, Central Jakarta, Rusminah has to carry pails of water for her daily needs, as the water piped to her house is muddy.

“I fill tubs with muddy water and wait for the mud to settle before using the water for cooking,” she said.

Mud carried by floods washed into Curug dam in West Java, the raw water reservoir for Jakarta, contaminating and disrupting much of the city’s tap water supply.

Governor Fauzi Bowo said Friday he had pushed city tap water operators PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) and PT Aetra Air Jakarta to accelerate the distribution of clean water.

“I have urged the two companies to resume normal services starting Saturday evening and Monday consecutively,” he said.

On Friday, the city also saw the replacement of the director of city-owned water company PAM Jaya Haryadi Priyohutomo by Maurits Napitupulu, previously head of the city’s Energy and Industry Agency.

After his installment by city secretary Muhayat, Maurits refused to comment on the water crisis.

Governor Fauzi said problems of raw water supplied from Jatiluhur dam in West Java was beyond the administration’s control as it was managed by state-owned Perum Jasa Tirta II, but he asked Aetra to investigate the damage of its pump to prevent it from happening again.

Jakarta gets water from Jatiluhur dam, which is sourced from Tarum Barat River.

Aetra, which supplies East Jakarta, suffered damage to its pump machine in Pulogadung water installation, causing a 40 percent drop in production capacity from the usual 8,700 liters per second, while PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) announced that 40 percent of its 412,000 connections would be

disturbed.

Hydrogeologist Fatchy Muhammad said the city should reduce its dependency on water from Jatiluhur dam and start turning its attention to a more sustainable approach like building a number of absorption lakes to make water reservoirs.

“The lakes will help absorbing the potential rain water into the land, which would create water source downstream,” he said.

He said it was also possible to build a water treatment plant on certain reservoirs, so operators could have another source of raw water.

Fatchy calculated if half of the city’s 661.52-square-kilometer land were filled with many absorption wells and lakes, Jakarta’s annual rainfall of 2,500 millimeters per year could cater to around 10 million people in the city, each of whom need around 73 liters of water a day.

In 2002, he tried to locate 20 strategic plots of unused land to build absorption lakes in the catchment areas of 10 big rivers — Sunter, Cipinang, Buaran, Ciliwung, Mampang, Krukut, Grogol, Pesanggrahan, Angke and Ciater.

He said at the time, the plots varied from 4 hectares to 100 hectares.

“The most important thing is, the city should draw up policy on potential land for lakes in its spatial planning, so massive real estate development doesn’t come ahead of water reserves,” he said.

Anti-flood programs still ineffective experts say

The Jakarta Post | Thu, 05/06/2010 11:06 AM

Relocating people from the flood-prone Ciliwung river basin needs cooperation between government, private parties and local residents, experts say.

For the last three years, a lack of cooperation and accountability have stymied the Public Works Ministry’s plan to move people from the Ciliwung River basin in East Jakarta to nearby low-cost apartments, concluded a recent discussion among experts.

The government hoped relocating people would reduce damage from the annual floods that plague Jakarta, they said.

But Yayat Suprianta, a spatial planning expert and lecturer in engineering at the University of Trisakti in Grogol, West Jakarta, said the program had failed because neither the local nor central government were accountable.

A further lack of coordination had led to additional financing and management problems. Efforts from private institutions had also failed or had limited or short-term results, he said.

Residents of the Bidara Cina settlement in the flood basin, for example, did not trust state or private sector institutions after the failure of 14 different anti-flood programs.

The programs were implemented in the area from 1999 to 2009, Yayat said.

“Last time I visited Bidara Cina, the head of one neighborhood unit refused to come to our meeting.”

“He didn’t see the point,” Yayat said.

Reports show that the government’s decision to build new apartments before consulting residents had led to strong reactions from those being relocated, as well as land acquisition problems.

Bruno Dercon, the housing policy adviser for the United Nations Human Settlements Program’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (UN-HABITAT ROAP) said the government needed to listen to grass-roots voices.

The government must also design programs that are feasible and meet the people’s needs, he added.

Private sector institutions must also be included in the relocation process, he added.

Dercon said the successful resettlement program developed in the wake of the 2005 tsunami in Aceh was a potential model for the Ciliwung area.

The Jakarta administration must coordinate the work of all stakeholders to resolve flood problems in the capital, he said.

The Ciliwung River runs through the center of Jakarta, dividing the city into east and west.

Independent reports show that poor population planning policies created a haven for illegal settlements along the banks of the river.

Previously, the Ciliwung has often been labelled “Jakarta’s trash can” because of poor sanitation.

Illegal settlements and poor sanitation exacerbated damage from Jakarta’s annual floods, experts said.

In 2007, 79 people died in Jakarta’s largest flood to date, which the government estimated to have caused financial damages exceeding Rp 8.8 trillion (US$976.8 million).

Real estate expo lacks visitors

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 05/02/2010 3:09 PM

Real Estate Indonesia (REI) Expo 2010 remains unable to lure many visitors on the second day of the exhibition, held in Jakarta Convention Center, Senayan, Central Jakarta.

"I often monitor this expo. But this time, there are not many visitors during holidays and lunch break," Soekarno, a businessman, said Sunday as quoted by kompas.com

The exhibition, which kicked off on Saturday and will last on next Sunday, features residential complexes in Jakarta, Cibubur, Depok, Bogor, Tangerang, Bandung, Semarang, Solo, Samarinda, Balikpapan, and Manado.

Residents of Homes Wrecked by Falling Object Seek Government Assistance

Jakarta Globe, Nurfika Osman, May 02, 2010

A Duren Sawit resident inspects damage at a home in East Jakarta hit by a mysterious object last week. Some say it was a meteor. (Antara Photo)

Residents of three homes in East Jakarta’s Duren Sawit urban ward damaged by a falling object some have called a meteorite are clamoring for compensation from the state, while neighborhood children are scared of a repeat.

Acie Sunarsih, 31, complained of lost business after the damage to her home forced her to close her beauty parlor on Jalan Delima II.

“I don’t know when I can reopen it, because I need to fix the ceiling and buy some salon equipment,” she said on Sunday. “I used to make Rp 300,000 to Rp 500,000 [$33 to $55.50] a day from this beauty parlor.”

Some have speculated that a meteorite was to blame for the incident, but there has been no official explanation.

Acie said she had been doing a facial treatment for a customer when the object hit, sending them fleeing outside. Her house, with the beauty parlor in the front, was heavily damaged. Three bedrooms and the dining room were reduced to rubble.

Kusnadi, Acie’s husband, said the family would need at least Rp 200 million to rebuild the 78-square-meter house.

“That’s all we need, but we haven’t received anything from the government,” he said. “I’m still working and we have some savings, but it won’t be enough.”

Kusnadi and Acie have a 4-year-old daughter.

The home of Soebari Marzuki, 70, was also damaged in Thursday’s incident.

“I thank God my wife and I weren’t in at the time,” he told the Jakarta Globe. “The damage is extensive, but I’m thankful that we’re still alive.

“We’ve lived here since 1979, so it’s quite sad that this happened,” he said. “I want to rebuild, with help from the government, because this was an accident, after all.”

He said officials from Malaka Sari subdistrict had pledged their help, but had not done anything concrete yet. Officials and police were to visit today, and Soebari said he hoped they would be able to shed light on what had damaged the homes.

Police have cordoned off the three damaged house.

The neighborhood children, meanwhile, have been traumatized by the incident.

“I’m afraid that one day my home will be hit by a UFO or other object falling from space,” said Dimas, 10. “We’re all scared that our homes aren’t safe anymore.”

Saffa, Soebari’s granddaughter, said she cried when the incident occurred. “I thought my grandfather had died inside the house,” she said, adding that she lived just 30 meters away. “I was riding my bicycle at the time. I heard a sound like a jet engine roaring when it happened.”

Ardian, 7, said he wished his family would move. “I think we need a new house far away from here,” he said. “I’m scared of staying at home now. I’d rather play outdoors than stay inside.”

Tuty, 56, told the Globe: “All the kids are asking their parents about UFOs and aliens.

“We tell them that everything’s fine and we just need to wait for the official report from police and experts.”

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