For a rainy day: Amsterdam plans to make new buildings catch rainwater

DutchNews, March 6, 2020 - By Senay Boztas 

A green roof bus stop. Photo: Mobilane

New build projects in Amsterdam would be forced to capture the first 60mm of rainfall thanks to proposals currently under public consultation. 

The city, which today launches a ‘roadmap’ charting its way to becoming climate neutral, is also concerned about how the built environment absorbs ever-increasing rainfall. 

A proposal, submitted in February, suggests that new builds will be obliged to ‘capture and process rainwater on their own ground, because the climate is changing and in the future ever heavier showers may fall.’ 

The obligation to capture and reuse rainwater – in features such as green roofs, water butts, and ‘grey water’ based sanitary facilities – is intended to help protect streets, cellars, houses and buildings from water damage. 

New builds would be obliged to soak up the first 60mm of rainfall and only then ‘gradually’ release it into city drainage system over 60 hours. 

Daniel Goedbloed, head of the water-management programme Amsterdam Rainproof, said that if the new rules are adopted, they would make a huge difference to the Dutch capital’s capacity to absorb water. 

‘The idea is that all new builds, including those which don’t need to apply for planning permission, can deal with up to 60ml of water on their own plot of land,’ he told DutchNews.nl. ‘You could install a “blue roof” that acts like a temporary lake and then slowly drains water, or a “blue-green” roof with sedum plants and the ability to hold some water. 

Rainwater harvesting systems can also be good, although they need to have water ready for the next use rather than draining it all away.’ 

Costs 

The rule for these systems is that they must catch 90ml of water and drain away 30% of this in 60 hours, he said. Smart rainwater harvesting systems and so-called ‘polder’ roofing would be exempt, and developments which don’t need planning permission would have slightly lower requirements. 

The costs would have to be borne by developers, although it is expected that on its own land, Amsterdam city council would offer a reduced ground rate for developers with rainwater harvesting measures in their plans. 

The public consultation period runs until the end of April and the rain harvesting measure is expected to go to a council vote before the summer. Meanwhile, local rules in areas such as Oud-West already mean that owners can only tile 50% of their gardens in order to let rainwater soak into the ground. 

The attention to rain is part of a drive to future-proof Amsterdam against climate change. The city’s plans to go climate neutral by 2030 – by better insulating homes and removing domestic gas – will reportedly cost ‘billions’ in investment. 

Head of sustainability Marieke van Doorninck on Friday compared the future-proofing plans in Amsterdam to the level of change during the Industrial Revolution, and a report by CE Delft confirmed that the city may be able to reduce its emissions by 48% in 2030, compared with 1990. 

Nika Haspels, a spokeswoman for Amsterdam city council, said that the rainwater proposals fall under this environmental drive. ‘This is part of the climate adaptation strategy,’ she said. ‘We have to do something: if you don’t ensure the rain is captured, then soon you are going to have a problem.’

Arata Isozaki of Japan wins Pritzker architecture prize

Yahoo – AFP, March 5, 2019

Japanese architect Arata Isozaki has been named the 2019 Pritzker Architecture
Prize winner (AFP Photo/Giuseppe CACACE)

Japanese architect Arata Isozaki has been awarded the Pritzker Prize, considered architecture's highest honor, for a lifetime of work that found global resonance while mining local traditions.

The 87-year-old's over 100 built works range from the Palau Saint Jordi, built in Barcelona for the 1992 Summer Olympics, to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, his first international commission.

His hometown of Otai, Japan is a showcase of his early work, including a medical hall and annex, and a prefectural library.

"Isozaki is a pioneer in understanding that the need for architecture is both global and local -- that those two forces are part of a single challenge," the chair of the jury, US Justice Stephen Breyer, said as the prize was announced Tuesday.

The Allianz tower (R) designed by Japanese Arata Isozaki and Andrea Maffei in 

western Milan stands next to the city's Generali tower (AFP Photo/MIGUEL MEDINA)

"For many years, he has been trying to make certain that areas of the world that have long traditions in architecture are not limited to that tradition, but help spread those traditions while simultaneously learning from the rest of the world," he said.

Isozaki is the 46th Pritzker laureate and the eighth Japanese architect to receive the honor. Winners receive a bronze medallion and $100,000.

Biggest Dutch pension fund quits pricey Zuidas for energy neutral home

DutchNews, September 27, 2018

An artist’s impression of the converted offices. Illustration: APG 

Pension fund group APG is moving its office in Amsterdam’s prestigious Zuidas business district to the Sloterdijk business park in the west of the city in 2021. 

APG, which manages one of the biggest pension funds in the world – the Dutch civil service fund ABP – says the move will save it €87m over the 17 year duration of the lease. 

‘You cannot explain to your pensioners that you are spending so much on offices when they are busy with counting their pennies,’ APG board member Wim Henk Steenpoorte told the Financieele Dagblad. 

The building on Basisweg, which is already home to some 500 APG workers, will be totally overhauled by its owner Edge Technologies and converted into one of the most sustainable buildings in the Netherlands. 

The 1970s building will become energy neutral, and the health of staff will take centre stage. This means, for example, that stairs will be given a prominent place to encourage walking, the FD said.

Building sector wants own ‘pay deal police’ to check up on dodgy contractors

DutchNews, February 14, 2017

Big construction firms want to have their own ‘pay deal police’ to check if pay and conditions agreement rules are broken, the Financieele Dagblad writes on Tuesday. 

Subcontractors who structurally and knowingly avoid paying social premiums and break minimum pay rules must be brought to book, construction employers say. The building industry employs some 118,000 people on freelance contracts and between 40,000 and 60,000 agency workers, often from abroad. 

The big building firms, which include Dura Vermeer, Heijman and Bam, want personnel checks at the gate and independent inspectors who will carry out spot checks on personnel files on site. 

‘At this moment it is impossible to guarantee that you will not find someone working on one of our building sites who get less than €18 an hour,’ personnel manager Alfred Boot of Dura Vermeer told the paper. 

‘Until now we have largely left the subcontractors to their own devices but now we want to increase controls and makes sure they work according to our standards. That can only happen if everybody complies.’ 

Agency

Boot’s own company got into trouble in 2015 when it turned out that Irish employment agency Atlantico Rimec charged Portuguese builders working on a Dura Vermeer project excessive sums for housing. The firm has since stopped using the agency. 

Reactions from unions FNV and CNV have been guarded, the FD writes. ‘The big players often have little influence on subcontractors such as Rimec but they are legally responsible for fake contracts,’ FNV building sector leader Hans Crombeen told the paper. 

The initiative would be one of several, FD says. Another ongoing scheme involves a ‘site ID’ which will show if a builder’s papers are in order and if he is paid according to the rules. 

The unions are looking to introduce the ID in 2017 but it has run into difficulties because many building firms refuse to reveal their chain of subcontractors and personnel because of competition concerns. 

Trail

‘Currently, it is impossible to know the status of all workers on a building site. Often dozens of limited companies are involved and more often than not the trail runs dry abroad,’ policy secretary Truus Remkes of the Dutch federation of contractors AFNL told the paper. 

The federation, which represents small and medium-sized contractors, is less than impressed by the plans and fears the knives are out for smaller firms. ‘The fact that we do not have a level playing field is the fault of the 10 big building firms themselves. 

‘They want to point the finger in order to protect their own backs,’ Remkes told the paper. 

From ghost city to boomtown, Phnom Penh soars high

Yahoo – AFP, Suy Se, 20 December 2015

Phnom Penh is second only to Laos in East Asia for the fastest rate of urban 

spatial expansion, according to the World Bank (AFP Photo/Tang Chhin Sothy)

From glitzy malls and high-rise flats to five-star hotels, a luxury building boom in Phnom Penh is transforming a capital once reduced to a ghost town into one of Asia's fastest growing cities.

Inside the recently opened Aeon Mall in the heart of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's first mega shopping centre, shoppers and curious residents flock to see the latest Levi's and Giordano handbags, snapping selfies in front of a giant Christmas tree.

It is a common scene across much of Southeast Asia but was previously unimaginable for many in Cambodia where around 20 percent of people still live on less than $1.25 per day.

But while poverty remains entrenched, a fast-growing middle class and elite are increasingly looking for local ways to spend their cash.

"I am glad we have such a modern mall in Phnom Penh. It shows the city is growing," says 20-year-old Bopha, a well-heeled university student who said her family made more than $1 million in a recent land sale.

Inside the recently opened Aeon Mall in the heart of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's 

first mega shopping centre, shoppers and curious residents flock to see the latest

 Levi's and Giordano handbags, snapping selfies in front of a giant Christmas tree

(AFP Photo/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Bopha said she used to have to travel to Thailand and Singapore for her shopping trips but that was now changing.

"Their cities are crowded with high-rise towers. I think we are heading in the same direction to be like them," she beamed.

The $200 million Japanese-built mall is just one of dozens of new shopping complexes, condominium projects and hotels springing up in Phnom Penh as Cambodia rides a wave of high economic growth rates in recent years.

The capital is second only to Laos in East Asia for the fastest rate of urban spatial expansion, according to the World Bank, and its economy is expected to grow at 6.9 percent this year.

Rise of the high-rise

All across the city luxury high-rise condos are popping up with names like "The Peak" and "Diamond Island", complete with billboards promising aspirational taglines such as "Sophisticated Urban Living".

A ferry sails past the five-star Sokha hotel in Phnom Penh (AFP Photo/

Tang Chhin Sothy)

According to the government, Cambodia drew construction investment worth $1.75 billion in the first nine months of 2015, a 13.7 percent rise from a year earlier.

Many of the new entrants into the kingdom's building market are developers from Japan, China, South Korea and Singapore.

The 39-storey Vattanac Capital Tower, Cambodia's first skyscraper which was finished in 2014, is designed in the shape of a dragon and incorporates Chinese traditional feng shui principles.

A few kilometres (miles) away, the local Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation is drawing from the country's past, building Parisian-style apartments framed by a replica of the Arc de Triomphe on a riverside complex in downtown Phnom Penh.

But some are worried where the construction frenzy will leave a city once famed as the "Pearl of Asia".

In its French colonial heyday Phnom Penh was regarded as one of the loveliest cities in Southeast Asia thanks to its wide European-style avenues, carefully manicured gardens and picturesque stately homes.

Just a few decades later, the buzzing city was reduced to a ghost town when Pol Pot's brutal Khmer Rouge army seized control of the capital and ordered its two million people to evacuate.

Phnom Penh has been coming back to life since the radical communist regime

 was toppled in 1979 but the surge of activity and change to its landscape has

intensified in recent years (AFP Photo/Tang Chhin Sothy)

The city has been coming back to life since the radical communist regime was toppled in 1979 but the surge of activity and change to its landscape has intensified in recent years.

Poor pushed to city fringes

Silas Everett of The Asia Foundation in Cambodia fears the city's original charm is fast disappearing with villas and stately buildings from the colonial era being torn down to make room for lucrative new construction projects.

"Phnom Penh's architectural heritage is world renowned... Yet the rate of destruction of these buildings of significant cultural heritage is alarming," said Everett, mourning in particular the loss of buildings designed by famed Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann.

And while wealthy Cambodians are lining up for a chance to live in some of the city's most coveted new addresses, the urban poor are increasingly relegated to the edges of the capital where many were evicted to make way for commercial developments.

Critics of strongman premier Hun Sen, who has ruled with an iron fist for the last 30 years, say he has turned Cambodia into a notoriously corrupt fiefdom where those loyal to him are handsomely enriched.

But he remains unapologetic about the capital's rapid transformation.

Experts worry that Phnom Penh's original charm is disappearing with villas 

and stately buildings from the colonial era being torn down to make room for

lucrative new construction projects (AFP Photo/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Phnom Penh, he said during a speech in November, would have been a "coconut plantation" had the Khmer Rouge remained.

Instead, he added, "an already dead city survived through the bare hands of our people".

Not everyone has benefited, however.

Strolling through Aeon Mall, Seng Seat, 60, says most of the products remain outside her budget.

"The price of some clothes and shoes at the retail brand shops is too expensive," Seat said.

"I just had a look at the price and left immediately."

North Korea offers rare apology over collapse of apartment building

An unknown number of people died when a building under construction collapsed in Pyongyang

theguardian.com, Reuters, Seoul, Sunday 18 May 2014

A construction division officer apologises to residents, in a picture
 released by North Korea's official news agency KCNA. Photograph:
KNS/AFP/Getty Images

North Korea has apologised to bereaved families after an apartment building collapsed in Pyongyang last week, the official KCNA news agency said, a rare admission of fallibility from the reclusive state. It is unknown how many died in the accident.

Pyongyang's expression of "profound consolation and apology" was the first official news of the disaster, which happened in the Phyongchon district of the North Korean capital on Tuesday.

"The construction of an apartment house was not done properly and officials supervised and controlled it in an irresponsible manner," said the statement from KCNA, which is better known for its strident attacks on South Korea and the United States.

The KCNA statement said the collapse of the apartment building "claimed casualties" but did not give any indication of how many may have been killed or injured. It said a rescue operation ended on Saturday.

An official from South Korea's unification ministry said on Sunday that a 23-storey apartment building had collapsed in Pyongyang on Tuesday, but he would not say from where the information had been obtained.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said "hundreds" were presumed to be dead.

The KCNA statement said North Korean authorities put emergency measures into place to rescue people from the collapsed building and to treat the injured.

It said Choe Pu-il, North Korea's minister of people's security, had "repented", saying he had failed to supervise the project adequately, "thereby causing an unimaginable accident".

The North had launched vitriolic criticism of South Korea's government for its handling of the ferry disaster that killed more than 300 people, many of them schoolchildren, last month.

Related Articles:

North Korea Reports ‘Unimaginable’ Construction Accident

S. Korea president apologises to ferry disaster relatives

Joko Wants Solar Panels for Jakarta Low-Cost Apartments

Jakarta Globe, SP/Deti Mega P. on 5:06 pm October 8, 2013

People walk across a yard inside the Pinus Elok low-cost apartment
complex in East Jakarta on Sept. 30, 2013. (JG Photo/Safir Makki)

Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo said on Tuesday that he wanted to install solar panels on the 100 low-cost apartment towers that his administration planned to construct next year.

“I think we need to apply an environmentally friendly concept for next year’s low-cost apartment construction,” Joko said on the sidelines of a visit to electronics manufacturer Panasonic Gobel’s plant in East Jakarta. “So solar panels should be installed on all the low-cost apartments that will be built next year.”

Joko said he was aware that solar panels would boost the upfront construction cost, but emphasized the savings that would be made over the longer term.

Yonathan Pasodung, the head of Jakarta Housing and Building Agency, said last month the Jakarta administration was ready to build 100 low-cost apartment towers next year in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Housing.

Each tower would consist of six floors and was planned to host 100 apartment units, with construction cost set at between Rp 20 billion ($1.7 million) and Rp 22 billion per tower.

The towers will be built across five Jakarta municipalities and offered for rent at Rp 150,000 per month per unit to low-income residents.

“That will include those displaced by [Jakarta's] river normalization project,” Yonathan said, according to Indonesian news portal tempo.co.

He added the towers would use precast concrete to make them more resistant to earthquakes.

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.

Special Report: Creating Clean, Green Cities of the Future

Jakarta Globe, April 11, 2010, Dody Rochadi

Jakarta is far from being classified as a green city.

On 16 February 2005, an international agreement on how to tackle climate change, the Kyoto Protocol, was ratified by over 140 countries. At that time, the mayor of Seattle, Greg Nickels, decided to promote the aspirations of the Kyoto Protocol in Seattle. He also encouraged other cities in the United States to follow suit by urging those in positions of leadership to consider adopting the principles of the Kyoto Protocol through the Climate Protection Agreement and creating green cities.

By June 2005, 141 mayors had signed on. By early 2009, the agreement had been signed by 935 mayors, in cities with a combined population of 83 million.

Today, many city mayors are working to get their cities focused on the environment. Though trying to achieve green city status, leaders are acting to improve the quality of the air, lower the use of non-renewable resources, encourage the building of green homes, offices, and other structures, create more green spaces, support environmentally friendly methods of transportation, and offer recycling programs.

The United Arab Emirates and China are two vastly different countries. But several years from now, they will have one thing in common — they both will have the first green cities in the world. Yes, China and the United Arab Emirates are currently preparing cities that have everything human beings could ever dream of such as clean air and clean water.

China is a country know for being polluted. No visitor returns without remarking on it. Car headlights gleam through the smog.

In April 2007, the government twice issued its most severe Air Pollution Index rating, which advises that the aged and ill should stay indoors.

This condition has been going on for a very long time, until the government embarked on a bold, expensive experiment to see whether pollution and waste – of all forms, not just the kind that taints the air – can be drastically reduced or even eliminated.

In March 2007, the government broke ground on what it called the world’s first eco-city. Designed by the London-based global consulting firm Arup Group, Dongtan is to be built on an island that is just a ferry ride away from central Shanghai. The government expects that by the time of the Expo, the new enclave would be a showcase city of 8,000 and it would have 1 million residents by 2050.

Dongtan will ban all polluting cars, even the most advanced hybrids. It will dig canals for waterways. On its streets, people will get around using electric cars, bicycles or just their legs.

The city would recycle as much as possible, including all its wastewater, grow food on its own environmentally-sensitive farms, and create all its own energy in non-polluting ways — wind, solar, and the burning of human and animal waste.

Most of these technologies are not new, and many are commonly used in Western Europe, Asia or the United States. What will make Dongtan unique is the integration of environmentally friendly practices and the strict exclusion of older, polluting ones.

If it is unusual for a business deal to be witnessed by the heads of two of the world’s most powerful nations, so too is the idea of creating from scratch an eco-city as large as Manhattan and more populous than Edinburgh or Atlanta.

But building cities virtually overnight is nothing new for the Chinese. In 1980, the central government created a special economic zone for Shenzhen, at the time a small fishing village about an hour from Hong Kong. These days, it’s a sprawling metropolis of 9 million.

While China will have Dongtan, the United Arab Emirates will have its own green city which will be named Masdar City. It is a city which is designed to have no carbon emissions, cars, or waste. It will cost $22 billion and take eight years to build. It will be able to hold a population of 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses. The city will cover 1,483 acres. Masdar City is being designed by Foster and Partners, a British company.

The city will have a personal electrical power supply mainly from two renewable energy sources — wind turbines and solar panels. Water will be provided through a solar-powered desalination plant and air conditioning will be provided naturally from wind towers.

It is forecast to save more than $2 billion in oil costs over the next 25 years along with creating more than 70,000 jobs.

The immense project will be supported by a company created for it called “Masdar Initiative”, which will develop and commercialize clean energy technologies. It will also be supported by the World Wildlife Fund, a global conservation charity, and it is hoped that international joint ventures will bring in more money.

Both Dongtan and Masdar are currently still undergoing development and we won’t see the results for at least 8 years. So, are we saying that we can only start having green cities many years from now? Is there any chance that we could start today?

A sustainability ranking of 30 major European cities was released in December 2009 in Copenhagen, the Scandinavian city that besides hosting the recent United Nations climate change talks, has been ranked in first place in the new European Green City Index.

The study, sponsored by Siemens and developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit, ranked 30 major cities across Europe relative to one another in eight categories with 30 underlying qualitative and quantitative indicators.

The top cities are, in order — Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Vienna and Amsterdam.

Don’t think that this ranking is of the “Greenest Cities” in Europe, even though it’s called the European Green City Index. Such an assumption is made by many about city sustainability indexes.

Some of our biggest challenges in cutting carbon to reduce global climate change will be in understanding the system dynamics that cities and other complex entities such as corporations, neighborhoods or even our households comprise. We no longer have the luxury of viewing our energy sources, food, water, buildings and land as separate, unrelated systems, even if business, government and academic institutions have been formulated according to this silo-type way of thinking.

Now that we have seen examples and pictures of how a green city can actually be realized, it leave us with a question — “what has your government done to make your city green?”

New green rating system set to improve buildings

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 02/01/2010 11:29 AM

Eight major property developers in Greater Jakarta are hoping to obtain green building certification for newly built properties, a member of Green Building Council Indonesia (GBCI) says.

“They want us to certify the new properties they have just built before selling them,” Tiyok Prasetyoadi, one of the founders of the council, said in Jakarta at a recent seminar on green buildings.

The eight are Agung Podomoro Group, Springhill Group, Ciputra Group, BSD City, Intiland Development, Summarecon, Agung Sedayu and Pikko Group. Tiyok also mentioned that another company, Artha Debang, located in Medan, North Sumatra, was also hoping to obtain certification.

The certification would increase the value of the properties, he said.

“A green building provides a positive image of its owner and developer. It expends less energy and uses materials with better durability. These things can all increase the market value of properties,” he said.

The council is currently developing an official rating system for the assessment of green buildings, which it hopes to finalize by March or early April this year.

Under the greenship rating system, buildings are assessed based on six criteria: the appropriateness

of site development; energy effi-ciency and refrigerants; water conservation; indoor air health and comfort; and building environment management.

Tiyok said that so far he had not found any office building in Jakarta that fulfilled all of the criteria.

“Most office buildings in the city are not designed to save energy and preserve water. However, these buildings can still gain marks in our rating system if the building management are willing to educate their employees and tenants,” he said.

Environment Ministry nature conservation deputy director Masnellyarti Hilman said the government would support the system.

“The government is still providing subsidies for water and electricity. However, because of budget constraints and the depletion of our coal and oil in the following years, I believe these subsidies will no longer be provided,” she said.

Previously the council had said that making green buildings required an increase in investment of between 6 and 7 percent, on average. However, this investment was expected to pay for itself within three years. (mrs)

Jakarta Predicted to be Underwater By 2012

Monday, 02 March, 2009 | 16:23 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Firdaus Ali, a technical environment researcher from the University of Indonesia, predicts that Jakarta will be underwater before the year 2012. He cited as the cause the excessive suction of ground water in the Jakarta area, resulting in the continuing subsidence of the land surface. “Not only will the city go underwater, we will also suffer from dehydration prior to that,” said the doctorate from the University of Wisconsin contacted by Tempo yesterday.

Firdaus’ calculation was based on the data of land subsidence in the capital city, which ranges around 10 centimeters a year in average. In West Jakarta, during the past 11 years, the land surface subsided by 1,2 meters. In Kemayoran and Thamrin in Central Jakarta, it has lost ground by 80 centimeters for the last 8 years. “If this continues, Jakarta’s land surface will be below sea level,” Firdaus said.

City Environment Committee chief, Darrundono, shared a similar opinion, pointing out that extreme exploitation of ground water has caused a drastic land subsidence. He said ground water supply is not increasing, yet its consumption keeps going higher. “A ground water crisis in Jakarta has come to a dangerous stage,” he cautioned.

The Jakarta administration plans to increase fees for ground water usage by luxury homes and industries to 6 – 16 times higher. This is aimed at reducing consumption which has become more exploitative.

Increasing fees, Firdaus said, is one of the instruments to reduce its usage. Users would be persuaded to use potable water from the services of the state-run Water Supply Company (PAM). “Ground water tariffs should be higher than that of PAM,” he said.

Every year, 320 million water cubic meters are sucked up from the ground, according to Firdaus. Yet, the reasonable amount should be only 38 million cubic meters. Meanwhile, the official data cites only 21 million cubic meters allowed to be consumed. “The remaining must be taken illegally,” he said.

According to Firdaus, extreme ground water exploitation creates a hollow in the earth. The resulting pressure causes the land subsidence. There are already many hollow areas around. “Even local rainfall can flood many areas,” he said.

Darrundono said the subsidence will cause Jakarta to slowly go below sea level. Sea water intrusion has currently reached 11 – 12 kilometers from the coast. “Sea water intrusion has reached the Setia Budi area in South Jakarta. Floods will become even more unmanageable,” he said. Sea water intrusion and subsidence can also cause buildings to collapse.

Darrundono criticized the construction of super-block buildings and skyscrapers in Jakarta, which also takes up excessive amount of ground water.

SOFIAN| LIS

Jakarta administration to seal off fire-prone high-rises

The Jakarta Post,  Jakarta  |  Sun, 03/01/2009 9:45 PM   |  Jakarta

 

The Jakarta fire department said Sunday it would seal off high-rise buildings that failed to comply with municipal fire safety standards.

 

“We have warned [the building owners] before. We will seal off their buildings if they still fail to meet our fire safety requirements,” agency head Paimin Napitupulu told beritajakarta.com.

 

Under existing regulations, a high-rise must have fire safety equipment, like a water hydrant, emergency stairs and fire extinguishers. However, 44 percent of 1,400 high-rise buildings in Jakarta currently fall short of that standard, Paimin said.

 

The agency recorded 90 fires in the first two months of 2009.

West Jakarta wants to lead Old Town rejuvenation

Prodita Sabarini, THE JAKARTA POST, JAKARTA | Mon, 02/23/2009 11:36 AM 

 

West Jakarta Mayor Djoko Ramadhan said Saturday he wanted his office to lead the rejuvenation of Jakarta’s Old Town because it fell within his municipality.

 

Ramadhan, after meeting with Old Town stakeholders at the  Mandiri Museum, said he agreed with the idea of the city having sole authority over the management of the area, but added his office should be in charge.

 

“The governor said to me when I took up office to take care of the Old Town,” he said.

 

The area’s revitalization is on the city’s “dedicated program” list, meaning it is a priority for the city administration. The cultural and tourism agency has been put in charge of the project.

 

The Old Town area is a heritage area because it contains several old buildings, including the former Dutch Batavia Town Hall, now the Jakarta History Museum, in the heart of the area. It spans 1.3 square kilometers, straddling both North and West Jakarta.

 

In 2007, as part of the Old Town revitalization plan, a pedestrian area began to be built on Jl. Pintu Besar Utara in Central Jakarta.

 

“There has yet to be an integrated coordination for the Old Town,” Djoko said, adding he hoped to revitalize the area starting this year, and had met with stakeholders to discuss problems in the area, prior to proposing his plans to Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo.

 

To revitalize the area, Djoko asked property owners to revamp the pedestrian arcade on Jl. Pintu Besar Selatan and Jl. Pintu Kecil.

 

Yusmada Faizal, head of the West Jakarta Public Works traffic division, said many property owners used the pedestrian arcade in front of their buildings for private use, with some even building gates or using the arcade as a parking spots.

 

He added property owners should agree to refurbish the arcade and provide the space for pedestrians.

 

“The Old Town can have the same atmosphere as places such as Braga in Bandung and Malioboro in Yogyakarta,” he said.

 

Djoko said the city would provide the design, while property owners should share the cost with the government for the construction.

 

None of the property owners from Jl. Pintu Besar Selatan and Jl. Pintu Kecil were present at Saturday’s meeting, but Djoko said he would meet with them next week.

 

As part of the rejuvenation plan, Djoko also proposed rearranging the traffic flow in the area, especially around Jakarta Kota Station and the Transjakarta busway shelter.

 

He said traffic should flow such that the Old Town became a destination rather than a transit point.

 

Muh. Fausal Kahar from the West Jakarta City Planning Agency said traffic around Kota Station was always packed. Despite the large numbers of people in the area, a lot of buildings remained desolate and abandoned, proof that people did not view the area as a destination.

 

“The only way to liven up the area is first by solving the traffic problems and making way for pedestrians. Also, abandoned buildings, some of them owned by state companies, should be revamped,” he said.

 

Candrian Attahiyat, head of heritage sites at the Jakarta Culture and Museum Agency, said there were 29 abandoned buildings in the Old Town, seven of which were severely damaged and could collapse if no immediate measures were taken.

 

One business owner said at the meeting that the abandoned buildings were also an entry point for criminals breaking into neighboring properties.

 

“In a year, we get three to four break-ins. The burglars come in through the empty buildings,” he said.

Borobudur at the crossroads

Sunita Sue Leng, CONTRIBUTOR The Jakarta Post, Borobudur, Central Java | Sun, 02/22/2009 10:09 AM

 

 

(JP/Sunita Sue Leng)

The best time to visit Borobudur Temple is at dawn. That is when Central Java’s magnificent World Heritage monument is enveloped in cool mist and peace.

 

That is when you will be able to climb the ancient stones in near solitude and be rewarded with a view of the candi’s rotund stupas – 72 in total – rising majestically out of the mist with the first rays of the sun.

 

Of course, you don’t actually have Borobudur to yourself. When I went, I was surprised to find 20 to 30 others on the highest terrace of the monument, waiting impatiently for the sun to come up.

 

They were mostly foreign tourists, some with fancy cameras on tripods, some with little children.

 

However, it was relatively quiet and I felt very fortunate to be able to visit this historic gem in such serene circumstances.

 

This was my second visit to Borobudur, and how different it was from the first. I had come the day before and made the mistake of coming on a Sunday. The entrance at the foot of the monument was already buzzing with people eager to set foot on the monument and as I looked across the length of Borobudur Park, I could see a never-ending stream of people making their way toward the entrance.

 

Borobudur at dawn – quiet and peaceful (JP/Sunita Sue Leng)

 

Once past the entrance, it was quite a challenge trying to navigate the stairways. The narrow stone stairways were choc-a-bloc with people, so climbing was a slow process, often with a view of nothing else but someone else’s posterior. When I got to the top, several visitors, mostly teenagers or children, were seated on top of the stupas, despite signs forbidding visitors to do so.

 

Strewn across the floors of Borobudur’s many terraces was litter – cigarette butts, empty bottles of mineral water, plastic bags. The few dustbins that were available were already full to the brim. It was not a pretty sight.

 

According to the authorities, Borobudur gets about 2.5 million visitors a year, the bulk of whom are Indonesians. When I went, schools were on their year-end break so a high proportion of the visitors that day were large groups of excited students on school outings. The rest were mostly families from neighboring provinces who had come on holiday, and a handful of foreign tourists accompanied by their guides (or guidebooks).

 

Litter along the terraces of Borobudur could damage the porous surfaces of the ancient stones (JP/Sunita Sue Leng)

 

It is comforting to know that so many people make the effort to visit Borobudur. After all, the monument is a present-day window to Indonesia’s glorious past. It is also an enduring memento of the advanced level of craftsmanship that prevailed in Java at a time when Western Europe was struggling through its Dark Ages.

 

Built in the eighth and ninth centuries, Borobudur houses a staggering 2,672 relief panels, many exquisitely detailed, as well as 504 Buddha statues. At the summit, a gigantic central stupa rests on a massive lotus-shaped base half a meter thick, making this the largest Buddhist stupa in the world.

 

Borobudur is a place of pilgrimage for those of the Buddhist faith. Its passages were designed for monks to circumambulate the edifice in silent prayer. Along the lower square terraces, they would be flanked by carvings such as the biography of the Lord Buddha, from his descent from heaven until his enlightenment, which is depicted on the main wall of the first gallery.

 

As they ascended to the higher circular terraces, they would be surrounded by unembellished stone walls, representing Buddhism’s Sphere of Formlessness. Above them, the main stupa – which is empty, signifying Nirvana – would soar into the sky. Today, Buddhist rituals are still carried out at Borobudur on auspicious days such as Waisak.

 

On top of this, Borobudur lies amid great natural beauty. As I stood atop the candi’s highest tier, I was almost eye to eye with Mount Merapi, the still-active volcano that soars 2,911 meters in the northeast. It was wrapped in fluffy clouds, while on the ground, green rice paddies stretched for miles.

 Children climbing one of the stupas (JP/Sunita Sue Leng)

 

On the western and southern edges, the Menoreh hills rose and fell. This is the geographical center of Java. Called the Kedu Plain, it is also known as the Garden of Java as it has been made unusually fertile and lush by volcanic earth and the intersection of two rivers, the Progo and the Elo.

 

Little wonder, then, that so many are drawn to Borobudur, which is already under threat, even without the crowds. According to the Borobudur Heritage Conservation Institute, acid rain has damaged some of the carvings, while global warming could cause more fissures and cracks in the monument’s stones.

 

The growing number of tourists to Borobudur, which is managed by PT Taman Wisata Candi Borobudur, Prambanan and Ratu Boko, add further strain. Litter is not just unsightly; the remnants of cigarettes or sugary drinks could damage the porous surfaces of the monument’s stones. Overcrowding along the steep stairs holds the risk of accidents, should a child or elderly person slip and fall.

 

Poorly supervised youngsters mean unnecessary touching of carvings, or worse, climbing onto statues and stupas, contributing to erosion of its more fragile surfaces. Painstakingly restored in the ‘70s and ‘80s with help from UNESCO, the Borobudur temple is a grand inheritance that every Indonesian should be proud of, regardless of religion. It would be a shame to let it succumb today to modern-day tourism.