India blows up luxury high-rises over environmental violations

Yahoo – AFP, Abhaya SRIVASTAVA, January 11, 2020

India has seen a construction boom in recent years but developers have often
ridden roughshod over safety and other regulations (AFP Photo/Arun SANKAR)

Two luxury waterfront high-rises in southern India were reduced to rubble in controlled explosions Saturday in a rare example of authorities getting tough on builders who break environmental rules.

The 19-floor H2O Holy Faith complex of 90 flats -- overlooking Kerala state's famous lush backwaters -- was the first to go down, collapsing in just a matter of few seconds.

A thick grey cloud of dust and debris cascaded down after officials detonated explosives drilled into the walls of the building, which had been occupied for several years until the Supreme Court ruled last May that it was constructed in violation of coastal regulations.

Minutes later, the twin towers of Alfa Serene tumbled down with an ear-splitting noise. The remaining two complexes will be razed on Sunday.

A crowd of onlookers who flocked to nearby terraces and roads watched the demolition, after officials in helicopters conducted aerial surveys.

India has seen a construction boom in recent years but developers have often ridden roughshod over safety and other regulations, with the connivance of local officials.

The inhabitants of the apartment blocks in the well-off Maradu district of Kochi city had bought their 343 flats in good faith and now face a lengthy legal fight to recoup their money. Some had invested their life savings.

Sirens went off warning people gathered for the demolition to remain at a safe distance

while ambulances and fire engines stood on standby (AFP Photo/Arun SANKAR)

Sirens went off on Saturday warning people gathered for the demolition to remain at a safe distance while ambulances and fire engines stood on standby.

Ahead of the work, nearby residents told AFP they were worried about the impact of the demolition on their homes.

"When they were demolishing the swimming pool, some of the houses in our neighbourhood developed cracks, we are really worried," said Divya, who has moved into temporary accommodation.

Over 2,000 residents living in the neighbourhood were evacuated as a part of safety measures.

Scenic and fragile

The demolition capped a saga that began in 2006 when a local governing body granted permission to private builders to erect the high-rises.

But last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the builders were in breach of rules about construction in an ecologically sensitive coastal zone, calling it a "colossal loss" to the environment.

"It's a high-tide area and hundreds of illegal structures have come up in the coastal zone," the court ruled as it ordered the buildings razed.

The inhabitants of the razed apartment blocks in the well-off Maradu district of Kochi 

city had bought their 343 flats in good faith and now face a lengthy legal fight to 

recoup their money (AFP Photo/Arun SANKAR)

On Friday the court also ordered the demolition of a resort in neighbouring Alappuzha district after its owners lost the appeal of a 2013 ruling that said the structure violated environmental regulations and must be demolished.

Kerala is famed for its brackish lagoons and lakes that run parallel to the Arabian Sea -- creating an environmentally fragile region.

In 2018, the state was battered by its worst floods in almost a century that killed more than 400 people.

Experts blamed the disaster on the government's eagerness to build houses, hotels and resorts with little regard for coastal planning regulations.

The residents of the Maradu apartments initially refused to vacate but moved out after local authorities cut water and power supplies.

They have been given interim partial compensation by the state government while the builders are in the process of providing a refund.

Shamshudeen Karunagapally, who bought a flat for $145,000, said his wife and children did not watch the buildings go down as it was "too painful for them to see their dreams shatter before their eyes".

"We are suffering without any fault," he told AFP.

Coastal areas may disappear in coming decades

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 09/25/2010 11:24 AM

Four districts on the north coast of Jakarta could be submerged within a century if the city administration does not address environmental issues in its spatial planning policies, an expert said.

“Research shows that the sea level on Jakarta’s coast has increased at a rate of 57 millimeters per year because of the effects of global warming on the polar ice caps,” Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) oceanology department chief Safwan Hadi said Friday.

The districts of Pademangan, Penjaringan, Tanjung Priok and Cilincing in North Jakarta would be flooded by a half-meter of sea water by 2100, Safwan said.

“However, the city will probably lose those areas sooner as we also find that soil in the area is subsiding by between 5 and 12 centimeters each year,” he added.

The Indonesian Water Society previously stated that Jakarta was slowly sinking, warning that North Jakarta will be completely submerged within 50 years when the sea would reach Jl. Hayam Wuruk in Central Jakarta, around 5 kilometers inland.

Safwan criticized the Jakarta administration’s decision to continue development plans in North Jakarta despite expert suggestions to put the plans on hold pending a reassessment to better cope with deteriorating environmental conditions.

If the administration wanted to continue its development plans in North Jakarta, he urged officials to start making plans to prevent the city from sinking, Safwan said.

“The administration can build strong dikes following the Dutch example, where their country’s landscape and features are similar to Jakarta,” he said, adding that about 40 percent of the area in Jakarta was below sea level. (rch)

Related Articles:

Jakarta sinking as fast as 10cm per year

Jakarta Predicted to be Underwater By 2012

President: Relocating the capital city an option

Moving Indonesia's Capital ‘No Help to Jakarta’

Jakarta Globe, Faisal Maliki Baskoro | September 20, 2010

Jakarta. Not so fast. Any recent dreams of cruising along Jakarta boulevards swept clear by a relocation of the capital to Kalimantan will likely continue to be just that: dreams.

Moving Indonesia's capital from Jakarta would
have little impact on the city, experts say.

International experts in urban planning and policy say moving Indonesia’s capital from Jakarta would have little to no effect on the overcrowding and crushing traffic endured by its residents.

The idea has gained ground in recent weeks, and the government announced last month that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was seriously considering a plan to relocate the capital, with Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan and Jonggol in West Java as the two most likely sites. Officials said Yudhoyono’s plan, also floated by presidents Sukarno and Suharto, was motivated partly by a desire to even the disparity in the country’s regional development.

For many Jakartans, though, the big boon would be a freeing up of the crippling traffic, which moves at an excruciating eight kilometers per hour, on average, costing at least $1.4 billion a year in lost productivity. And it will only get worse. The Jakarta city administration has predicted total gridlock by 2012 without drastic action, as the population grows and car sales soar by about 15 percent annually.

But Kenneth Corey, a professor of urban and regional planning at Michigan State University, says moving the capital would be no help.

“I know of no evidence that documents conclusively that traffic congestion is reduced by relocating all or some capital functions out of a national capital,” Corey said. He conducted an extensive study of capital relocations and their implications for South Korea’s now-abandoned plan to totally relocate its capital.

Wendell Cox, an expert on urban policy and transportation issues with the consultancy Demographia, said residents of Greater Jakarta could look forward to ever-worsening gridlock regardless of where the capital was moved. Cox noted that Jakarta, as the nation’s commercial hub, would continue to experience explosive population growth in the coming decades, as well as surging sales of automobiles.

Cox said relocating Brazil’s capital from Rio de Janeiro, Pakistan’s from Karachi and Nigeria’s from Lagos did not prevent those cities from extending their sprawl. He said Rio’s population had tripled since the capital was moved to Brasilia in 1960, while that of Lagos, which ceded capital status to Abuja in 1991, is expected to grow to 15 million by 2025 from an estimated nine million now.

He said the population of Greater Jakarta, or Jabodetabek, which he estimated at 26 million people now, would grow to nearly 40 million by 2050, regardless of whether the capital was moved.

“Based upon the experiences of Abuja, Islamabad and Brasilia, I would be surprised if a new remote capital would reduce Jakarta’s future population by more than two million, and it could be substantially less than that. A megacity of 38 million would be just as unmanageable as one of 40 million,” he said. He estimated that the 40 million mark would be reached by 2030.

Cox stressed that ultimately, while relocating the capital might make Jakarta marginally less crowded and would have other benefits, the city was still destined to suffer gridlock without a massive investment in infrastructure.

“If a principal objective of the capital move is to reduce traffic congestion, then it would be far better to spend the money on the infrastructure needed to do that rather than taking the approach of moving the capital to reduce traffic congestion,” he said.

Related Articles:

House speaker agrees with idea to move Indonesia's capital

President: Let's consider moving RI's capital

Jakarta sinking as fast as 10cm per year

Jakarta Predicted to be Underwater By 2012

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.”

President opens development planning Congress 2010

Antara News, Wednesday, April 28, 2010 14:03 WIB

Giving direction: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono gestures during his opening speech at a national development planning meeting in Jakarta on Wednesday. Antara/ Widodo S. Jusuf

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono here on Wednesday opened the National Development Planning Congress 2010 which will last until May 1.

Aimed at drafting the government`s Work Plan for 2011, the congress is being participated in by around 2,000 people consisting of, among others, governors, district heads, mayors from all over Indonesia.

The congress` theme is "Acceleration of Just Economic Growth Supported by Consolidation of Central-Regional Government Relations".

The theme is translated into 11 national development priorities in 2011, namely bureaucratic and administration reform, education, health, poverty eradication, food resilience, infrastructures, business and investment climate, energy, the environment, natural disasters, least developed regions, the most outer and inner islands, post-conflicts, culture, creativity and technology innovation.

The results of the earlier two working meetings led by the President and attended by governors from the country`s all provinces at Cipanas (West Java) and Tampaksiring (Bali Province), became inputs in drafting the government`s work plan 2011.

The congress is also expected to synchronize programs, main activities, venues and budgets prepared by the ministries and government institutions, which are considered urgent and need to be implemented immediately.

After delivering his opening remarks, President Yudhoyono is expected to present copies of two books titled "Guarding the Momentum for Change: Evaluation of the Five-Year Implementation of the National Middle-Term Development Plan 2004-2009" and "The Administration and Regional Development Implementation: Strengthening Synergy between the Central and Regional governments and Among Regions," to three representatives, namely Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo in his capacity as chairman of the All Indonesian Provincial Governments Association (APPSI), Pacitan District Head Sujono in his capacity as chairman of the All Indonesia District Government Association (APKASI), and Palembang Mayor Eddy Santana Putra in his capacity as chairman of the All Indonesia City Administration Association (APEKSI).

Related Article:

SBY warns officials against sleepiness

RI infrastructure faces quality problem: Minister

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 03/31/2010 10:09 PM

Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto says much of the country’s infrastructure suffers from quality problems.

“Based on our observations, there are quality and utilization problems in the existing infrastructure,” he said Wednesday as quoted by Antara at a regional meeting in Semarang, Central Java.

He called for improved quality, planning and budgeting in future.

Planning should begin with spatial planning of each area, feasibility studies and technical planning according to existing standards, Djoko said.

He added the steps were necessary to synchronize programs involving several sectors and regions.

Besides the quality problem, some infrastructure that had been built was not being used optimally, he went on.

When Planning Mega-Cities, What We Don’t Know is as Crucial as What We Do

Jakarta Globe, Girish Nanda, March 16, 2010

It was none other than Donald Rumsfeld who, in a moment of uncharacteristic clarity while serving as the US secretary of defense in 2002, broke down intelligence gaps into“known knowns” (things we know), “known unknowns” (things we don’t), and “unknown unknowns” (things we don’t know that we don’t know). While he directed his words at the ongoing war in Afghanistan, recognizing what you know and what you don’t is critical in any context.

Urban planning in Asia’s mega-cities is one area where such knowns and unknowns intersect. Things we can know include government policy, regulations, key performance indicators and the modern urban planning goals of sustainability, reduced carbon emissions and urban social equality. Known problems include bureaucracy, corruption and lack of enforcement.

Known unknowns include the questions of how to plan a city that is slum free, and exactly when collapse will ensue when an urban center develops without adequate transportation systems.

Planning also involves unknown unknowns. These are not scenarios involving factors we have yet to contemplate — such as how to respond to a particular flood or earthquake — but unknown gaps in our knowledge. We cannot precisely predict these new problems, but it is certain that they will arise.

Two core components of city planning are long-term planning, often in the form of a master plan, and medium-term planning, often framed in five-year dollops.

The master plan is an assessment of what a city and its supporting structure should be in about two to three decades. Columbia University professor Elliot Sclar aptly describes the two extremes of such plans: At their best, “master plans project positive visions of what a city could be if it was to create an attractive environment for urban existence,” and at their worst they “reduce themselves to architectural fantasies superimposed upon bureaucratically created land-use maps.”

Unfortunately, in terms of the Asian mega-cities experience, we are seeing more of the latter. Medium-term plans are similarly often filled with vague yet technical details intended to be in alignment with the long-term plan, but which in practice are largely steps backward. For many detractors, chiefly car users, this could be the definition of Jakarta’s busway system.

But it is not just transport planning that is a challenge in 21st century Asian mega-cities. These cities already suffer from unresponsive infrastructure, combative sanitation systems and a dearth of clean water that, when combined with elusive livelihood opportunities, add up to a feeling of living in unending, unforgiving and unalterable poverty.

But despite the problems, Asia’s mega-cities will also be the cities facing the highest rates of population growth in the coming decades. There is still no shortage of takers for the wonders of the urban pull. These movements put stress on city administrations which often lack the manpower, expertise and capability to effectively address any of these problems outright.

While city planning ideally should focus on achieving vibrancy, sustainability and liveability for all, these ideals are often constrained by outdated government policies, a lack of policy, funding shortfalls, general bureaucratic hurdles and, sadly, appeasing the interests of competing elites only too happy to skew urban budgets to suit their needs.

For example, in Cairo one gated colony intends to hold 500,000 people and will include hospitals, universities, malls and a water park. Moderating this pattern of exclusive development is no easy matter for city authorities, however, with heavy pressure on them from elites to conform. How to mitigate this inherent conflict of interest might well be an unknown unknown because many authorities would not recognize this as an issue yet, especially as senior members of local authorities tend to live in such “favored” ghettos.

However, as the urban poor are better educated about their rights, and as advocacy groups remind public officials that infrastructure and city services cannot be developed at the behest of market forces alone, access to such resources might become more widespread. Soon, planners and politicians will realize the effect of such public development in increasing life chances and reducing overall costs.

For example, developing full clean water and sanitation coverage in Jakarta, in addition to conserving water resources for the future, could also reduce future costs in the health care sector and also increase labor productivity.

Then there’s the edifying effect of growing up in a green, clean, disease-free city that supports positive life chances rather than trying its best to snuff out any semblance of well-being in the metropolitan life. Of course solving mega-city problems may cost mega-bucks, with bills eventually running into billions of dollars in annual costs for all of Asia’s mega-cities combined. But decisions on whether to spend large sums of money now do not take into account future money saved by their ripple effects, and thus potential long-term benefits have been ignored by urban planners. Reforms in this kind of financing are still moving at an inappropriately slow pace.

The adequacy of planning methodologies used in “traditional” urban areas is being called into question in the 21st century when they are trotted out, unchanged, for use in the latest booming cities. While the changes around the globe brought about by explosive growth and development have had far-reaching effects, have changes in urban planning kept pace? In today’s world, have master plans assisted citizens living in mega-cities or confused them with irrelevant policies and goals? Do master plans actually curb city planners’ natural reactive tendencies?

Jakarta, by the standards of other Asian cities, is still a green city, with parks and mature trees relatively abundant. But spatial plans in all mega-cities need more regular review and even stronger enforcement as competing land-use battles intensify. The spatial plan in Jakarta is reviewed just once every five years, internally by the very government agencies it is meant to guide. More frequent monitoring of the zoning rules may save more trees from wayward developers flouting building and green-zone codes.

One unknown unknown that planners have yet to discover is that transparency and accountability, when applied in the context of megacities, are two key performance indicators in planning that are not the burden that some may perceive. Countries such as China and India have taken steps toward openness, giving citizens the right to information about how they and their cities are governed. Cities have not collapsed as a result. Indeed they are better for it. This is how it should be, because mega-cities are here to stay.

Girish Nanda is a program officer for Strategic Asia, a Jakarta-based consultancy promoting cooperation among Asian countries.

City's green spaces not a priority, says planner

Irawaty Wardany, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 02/06/2010 1:02 PM

Increasing Jakarta's green spaces is not a priority for the city administration, which focuses more on transportation and housing, a spatial planning expert says.

Yayat Supriatna, a spatial planner from Trisakti University said recently that providing enough green space would fully depend on commitment from the city administration, as the mission to green the city would be held back by the high price of land.

Green areas have long been an issue in the thriving metropolis of Jakarta, and some observers have said the lack of green spaces makes the city less livable.

The administration also needs to encourage private companies to get involved in greening Jakarta, similar to the recent corporate social responsibility programs (CSR) undertaken in Cakung district, North Jakarta.

The densely populated area of Cakung has geared up to transform its image as a slum area inundated by rain in wet season and dust in the dry season.

On Wednesday, the restoration of some 16 kilometers of the area began as part of a CSR program.

"We have been working on the green area by redesigning and reorganizing the space since November last year," said Handoyo, the communications manager of the developer company PT Mitra Sindo Sukses, adding the company had provided Rp 1 billion (US$106,951) for the CSR program that would cover restoration and maintenance expenses for a year.

Handojo said the company had cooperated with district officials, public order officials and the police on the program.

In 1965, more than 35 percent of Jakarta was made up of green areas, but this has been shrinking ever since. Currently, green areas in Jakarta account for only 9.3 percent of the city's 661,000 square meters of land, far less than the target of 30 percent set by the 2007 Spatial Planning Law.

Jakarta Planning Board head, Nurfakih Wirawan, said it would likely maintain the 13.94 percent target to improve green areas in its 2010-2030 spatial plan, saying the government's target of 30 percent was "unrealistic".

Nurfakih said the modest target was set because the city wanted to make sure the target was achievable.

He mentioned that land acquisition was one of the problems it faced in attempting to create more green spaces in the city.

Jakarta 2030: Public input needed

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 12/24/2009 10:10 AM

What will Jakarta be like in 2030? Would you entrust the future to city officials or would you want a say yourself?

Several urban activists who live in and love Jakarta gathered Wednesday at Tarumanagara University (Untar) in West Jakarta to emphasize that they should have a say in shaping the city’s future.

They claimed the city administration had compiled a document called RTRW (spatial planning) Jakarta 2010-2030 with almost no input from the public. The 2007 Spatial Planning Law stipulates that public participation is required when designing a city masterplan, but the administration has clearly failed to adhere to this law.

“They said they would have a campaign publicizing the planning draft to the people, but I have not heard any announcement or news on this,” Elisa Sutanudjaja, an architecture lecturer at Pelita Harapan University said.

Suryono Herlambang, a spatial planning lecturer at Untar, which hosted the meeting, said the city’s Regional Planning Agency (Bappeda) invited him in November to discuss the masterplan draft, but he found it to be lacking.

“What they meant by public participation is presenting us with the highly technical draft and asking for our opinions,” Herlambang said.

He said, as a spatial planning expert, even he could not immediately grasp the draft details.

“Even non-technical people should be able to envisage Jakarta in 2030,” Sri Palupi, the director of the Institute for Ecosoc Rights, said.

Bappeda has created the rtrwjakarta2030.com website where people can download the plan. However, Irvan Pulungan from the Indonesian Center from Environmental Law said not all resident had access to the Internet.

The website was set up in the third week of December, and Elisa said she received information that Bappeda were accepting emails from the public at rtrwdkijakarta@gmail.com until Jan. 10.

Herlambang said the contents of the plan itself seemed to pose a lot of problems that residents should scrutinize. Compared to 2030 masterplans for Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, New York City and London, Herlambang said Jakarta’s plan lacked vision.

Sydney planners, for example, stated in a separate “Vision Book” that they wanted a “sustainable city,” a city “with walkable streets,” “which celebrates outdoor life,” “which is not clogged by cars.”

Palupi added that Jakarta’s masterplan clearly lacked a human aspect as it included no mention of people or the demographic makeup of Jakarta.

Elisa said the masterplan had conflicting ideas. She said it included plans to build toll roads, which would encourage private car use but on the other hand, it planned a “park and ride” system, which suggested a well-planned public transportation.

Following the two hour discussion, the participants, comprising around a dozen people concerned with issues such as the environment, the economy, society, habitat, and urban poor, agreed they should help the city increase public participation.

They said they would scrutinize the masterplan and meet again on Jan. 7 to highlight problems and offer solutions.

Marco Kusumawijaya from the rujak.org community said participants accepted the 2030 masterplan was important, therefore they wanted to participate in shaping it. “We are concerned and we want to say, please take a look at New York, Melbourne and Sydney,” he said. “We want to be involved and we will do this with energy and courage.”

Govt to impose guidelines on airport development

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 11/24/2009 9:47 PM

The Transportation Ministry will soon issue an “airport principle” containing guidelines for government agencies including regional administrations as well as airport operator companies in planning, constructing, and operating airports across Indonesia.

The ministry’s director of airports Bambang Tjahjono said that they aimed to impose the principle in January 2010, to follow up the newly-endorsed Law No. 1/2009 on Aviation that allowed private companies and regional administrations to build and operate airports.

“This guideline will give exact measures about airport development planning as well as criteria for local administrations that plan to construct a new airport in their territories,” Bambang told The Jakarta Post.

He criticized regional administrations that sometimes proposed to build new airports to the ministry without supporting comprehensive studies about the future plan of the airport.

“Sometimes regional leaders, governors and regents, are too ambitious to build airports but lack market study. As a result, new airports become deserted or even abandoned,” Bambang said.

He cited the failing Samarinda Baru airport in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, the unclear West Java International airport plan in Majalengka, West Java, and the deserted Notohadinegoro airport in Jember, East Java, as examples.

Data from the ministry recorded 196 airports nationwide, excluding those owned by private parties and military that were not used for public flights, Bambang said.

“The minister has recently approved the plans to develop 31 new airports.”

Of the new airports, only the West Java International Airports in Majalengka is planned to be a big airport.

The rest are small airports, mostly in eastern Indonesia, such as Aceh Singkil in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Enggano in Bengkulu, Banyuwangi in East Java, Wakatobi in Southeast Sulawesi, Tual Baru in Maluku, Nabire Baru in Papua, and Halamahera Tengah in North Maluku.

“Most of those small airports will be funded by local budgets. The central government is only approving their proposals,” Tjahjono said. (bbs)

Papua to build 2,000-MW power plant

Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 11/04/2009 11:06 AM

The Papua provincial administration is planning to build a 2,000 -megawatt (MW) hydro-power plant to meet electricity demand and to support infrastructure needs in Papua.

“We are finishing the feasibility studies for the hydro-power plant. [It requires] more than Rp 5 trillion [about US$525 million],” Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu said Tuesday after meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

“[The plant will eventually generate] 2,000 MW in total, but we’ll start with a 300-MW power plant and build it in steps.”

He said the administration would be one of the financiers in the hydro-power plant project, while also inviting other investors.

Barnabas, however, did not disclose the designated time for the studies to be completed or for the plant to commence operation.

Barnabas did not say whether the plan was part of 18 power plants slated to be built in the province by state utility company PT PLN during the 2007-2012 period.

PLN has said that the 18 power plants will include coal, hydro and micro-hydro plants, to meet power demand and lessen the province’s dependency on diesel-power.

The 18 power plants include the 19.2-MW Genyem hydro-power plant (expected to commence operation in 2010), two 10-MW coal-fired plants at Jayapura Baru (to commence operation in 2011-2012) and the 1.1-MW Amai micro-hydro-power plant (expected to commence operation in 2010).

Barnabas added that the power plant projects were just another example of how the resources-rich region is gearing up for a series of major development projects.

In addition to these electricity projects, Barnabas confirmed earlier statements by state officials over the establishment of a cement factory to help tackle a supply problem that often resulted in escalating cement prices in the region.

According to Industry Minister M.S. Hidayat, the US mining giant Freeport McMoran was among the investors interested in constructing a cement factory, worth about Rp 3 trillion.

Barnabas said that the construction of the cement factory would begin in 2010.

“What’s important is that good governance must be in place, infrastructure that supports investment, public support, security, and then other incentives for investment such as tax concessions and others,” he said.

In 2008, realized domestic investment reached Rp 5.7 trillion in Papua, while foreign investment totalled more than $5 billion.

Action Needed Now to Avoid ‘Catastrophe’ in Jakarta

The Jakarta Globe, Emmy Fitri

Motorists stuck in traffic in Central Jakarta.
(Photo: Jurnasyanto Sukarno., JG)

Inextricable traffic jams, even on toll roads, barely breathable air, heavily contaminated water and dwindling open spaces — problems suffered daily by Jakarta residents — may seem intolerable now, but experts warn that it will only become worse unless concerted efforts are made to fix the mess that is Indonesia’s capital.

Urban planning expert Darundono sums up the current path Jakarta is on today in one word — “catastrophic.”

Each day, almost 10 million commuters spend hours on Jakarta’s roads. But transportation analyst Budi Santosa, from Trisakti University, says it has long been predicted, in several studies, that by 2014, traffic jams in the capital are likely to reach total gridlock as a result of the exponential increase in the number of vehicles plying an insufficient road network.

“A viable solution is to design a mass rapid transportation system to reduce the vehicle population. We cannot afford to build another inner-city toll road or more streets because we have run out of land for such massive construction,” Budi said, adding that so far there appear to be no breakthroughs visible on the horizon.

Jakarta, however, is not only running out of land for more roads. The capital is choking from the unfettered conversion of open spaces into concrete.

Darundono says that when he designed the Jakarta Spatial Plan for 1965-1985, the designated green areas accounted for between 26 percent and 28 percent of the city’s surface, but today they make up only about 10 percent.

“The government has been inconsistent in its implementation of its own plans. Parks, green spaces and public cemeteries are being turned into shopping malls and government offices,” he says.

The combined effect of the sheer number of vehicles out on the road each day and the lack of green open spaces that could offset their fumes has severely degraded the quality of the city’s environment.

According to the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), transportation causes 70 percent of Jakarta’s air pollution, and the city produces 13,000 tons of carbon dioxide daily.

As a result, on most days of the year — 347 out of 365 in 2006, to be exact — Jakartans are breathing in polluted air.

It is no wonder then, that a third of the capital’s residents suffer from some form of respiratory tract infection each month.

In fact, a World Resources Institute paper says respiratory tract infections account for 12.6 percent of mortality in Jakarta — more than twice the national average.

Admitting that the capital, home to as many as 12 million people, is mired in environmental problems, the acting head of the Jakarta Environment Management Board (BPLHD), Ridwan Panjaitan, says programs to address each and every issue are up and running, including the enforcement of emission tests and the smoking ban.

“But we cannot work by ourselves because some programs are closely related to other agencies like the health agency and the traffic police. That becomes our challenge, to synergize the programs with other agencies because unless we have a common understanding then we cannot work together,” he says.

Returning home at the end of the day, more than five million Jakartans will scarcely find rest and solace in their small, cramped houses in the capital’s rapidly expanding slum areas, where basic services such as water supply and sanitation are minimal, if they exist at all.

The government’s efforts to build thousands of low-cost apartments for the poor have so far been criticized as only adding to the problems, instead of being a solution.

“There will be massive groundwater use,” Darundono said.

Excessive groundwater extraction has long been flagged as a major problem in Jakarta, causing the land to sink by an average of 5 to 10 centimeters a year, according to a study by the World Bank.

The capital’s water supply operators have been unable to connect hundreds of thousands of households, particularly those in slum areas — where the thousands who migrate to Jakarta each year in search of work live.

With the confluence of these urban woes threatening the future of Indonesia’s capital, real solutions must be found soon.

On Nov. 10-12, international experts will converge on Jakarta to map out a sustainable path for the capital.

These solutions are urgently needed to avoid the catastrophe that Darundono says we are currently headed toward.

Related Articles:

Climate change to affect marine tourism

Jakarta Predicted to be Underwater By 2012

Dutch help Bay Area plan for sea level rise

By Julia Scott, San Mateo County Times, 09/21/2009 05:20:10 PM PDT

A conceptual example of "tidal embracing development" in Foster City that accommodates sea level rise with a series of wetlands, a short levee with a public park behind it, and a thicker levee protecting apartment buildings. (Conceptual drawing courtesy Arcadis)

SAN FRANCISCO — How to plan for sea level rise, a still-abstract concept for many Californians, drew serious consideration from engineers, designers and urban planners from the Netherlands and the United States at a symposium Monday.

A group of government-sponsored Dutch experts presented a report with strategies to deal with sea level rise in San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta based on a year's worth of research in partnership with the Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

With 50 percent of the Netherlands below sea level, the Dutch have been perfecting flood protection for the past 600 years.

The inevitable effects of climate change in California, and how cities can adapt to them, are starting to get more attention from Bay Area planners. While no one knows exactly how sea level rise will play out 100 or 200 years from now, analysts agree that more severe and frequent floods are going to be a part of it.

Avoiding sea level rise is by now impossible. The Bay has risen 8 inches since the start of the 20th century, and scientists worldwide agree that the Bay Area in particular can expect to experience sea level rise of as much as 16 inches by midcentury and as much as 55 inches by 2100.

Extreme storms will increase annual risk of flooding from 1 percent to 100 percent if no actions are taken to protect the Bay Area shoreline, potentially endangering 270,000 residents, according to the Pacific Institute. Development along the shoreline is currently valued at $62 billion.

How to plan for a future in which some of that real estate is threatened by storm surges — for a time beyond what today's urban planners will live to see — is the crucial question, said Will Travis, executive director of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

"We're in the same position as the captain of the Titanic. By the time he looked up, it was too late — he was going to hit (the iceberg)," he said. "We need to stop trying to protect the Bay Area the way it is.

Instead, we need to design it for the way it will be in the future."

That future may involve dismantling development in some places and letting the tide take its course, according to the report. Regional leaders may decide that some areas, such as the Port of Oakland and both regional airports, are too valuable to lose and must be protected at all costs. Other areas could be transformed to incorporate rising tides into the heart of a city.

The key is to begin asking those questions now, especially as several major developments at the edge of the Bay await approval, including Treasure Island and a Cargill saltworks site in Redwood City. Those areas were singled out in the report as "hot spots" for the Bay, meaning they represent the types of development most at risk from sea level rise.

"Just as in an emergency room, making these policy decisions will be difficult," Travis said. "It may be better to abandon some places than to allow the houses to be built and then try to protect them from flooding."

Frustratingly little is known about how well protected the Bay Area is from a serious flood even now, according to the report. (Cities on the Bay are expected to prepare for a once-in-a-century flood, but the shores of the Netherlands are armored with flood gates and other equipment strong enough to withstand a once-in-10,000-year onslaught from the North Sea.)

While many of the Bay Area's most vulnerable and valuable areas are protected by federally certified levees, they were all built before planners became aware of how sea level rise would change the whole equation.

Simply building higher levees is not a silver bullet, however. The Dutch came to that conclusion in 1995 after major flooding through the country's interior estuaries made them rethink the policy of walling off every section of river. They invented a new concept, called "living with water," designed to embrace sea level rise. They raised houses and let water flow underneath them. The government bought farmland along waterways and turned it into tidal wetlands, which naturally absorb water.

"People realize we can't just raise levees forever. If something goes wrong, you have an entire city that will be flooded in an instant. Water is a fact — we need to do something about it," said David Van Raalten, project manager for the pilot project between the Netherlands and California and a principal in ARCADIS, an international engineering and consultancy firm.

Rather than propose a series of tailor-made design solutions for each Bay Area "hot spot" based on a Dutch blueprint, the report offers a new way of thinking about what types of development ought to exist in which area. Zones with high economic value might continue to fill the Bay and expand with the help of levees and sea walls. Another option, labeled "tidal embracing development," could involve urban tidal canals carved into the suburbs or parking lots that retain storm water underground.

The Dutch government has formed similar partnerships in most of the world's most vulnerable water regions, including Louisiana, Indonesia, the Yangzee Delta in China and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, with the goal of sharing expertise and learning from each other.

The Dutch government spent 120,000 euros, or $176,000, on the Bay Area pilot project and is proposing to invest another 100,000 euros for further research in California, provided the state can match the money.