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."

Indonesia to Build Ten New Cities on Outer Islands

Jakarta Globe, Mar 24, 2015

Development Planning Minister Andrinof Chaniago, left, wants to develop new
urban areas across Indonesia to deal with poverty and unemployment. (Antara
Foto/Vitalis Yogi Trisna)

Jakarta. The government intends to build ten new cities in remote parts of Indonesia, Andrinof Chaniago, head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), announced on Tuesday.

The first new city will be Tanjung Selor in North Kalimantan, the new province founded in 2012 on land that used to be part of East Kalimantan province. Tanjung Selor is the capital of North Kalimantan, but currently only has 42,000 inhabitants. The administration of President Joko Widodo now wants to turn the town into a true city.

“We will start the [development of] ten cities during the term of this administration,” Andrinof said on Tuesday, as quoted by state-owned news agency Antara.

The Bappenas head explained that the purpose of  developing new urban areas throughout Indonesia was to boost equitable economic growth in the regions outside Java to decrease poverty and unemployment.

Andrinof declined to provide additional details about the plan.

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.”

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.

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.

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.”

When taxpaying communities step in

The Jakarta Post, Evi Mariani, Jakarta | Mon, 12/21/2009 12:42 PM

JP/J. Adiguna

Perhaps inadvertently, Jakarta – like many other cities in the world – has been swept away by the force of the market and neoliberalism, which has consequently transformed the way the city administration works.

In his 1989 paper “From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism: The Transformation in Urban Governance in Late Capitalism” in the journal Geografiska Annaler, Human Geography Professor David Harvey argues that urban governance has “increasingly become preoccupied with the exploration of new ways in which to foster and encourage local development and employment growth”.

Harvey says such a stance is in contrast with the managerial role urban governance used to perform in the decades before the 1980s, which primarily focused on the local provision of services, facilities and benefits for the urban population.

Harvey based his argument on his observation on developed cities in Western Europe and North America in the 1980s. Yet two decades later and a thousand kilometers away, I find his analysis is applicable to contemporary Jakarta, which is increasingly pro-market. One of the consequences of the shift is the deterioration of public services as the administration has been busy ensuring a climate conducive to investment, and developing poor areas by evicting and gentrifying, among others.

One proof of the entrepreneurial Jakarta is the way the administration leases its property assets to the private sector, including for trade centers (such as ITC Mangga Dua), rather than build social housing for the poor or those in the lower-middle income bracket.

In the absence of managerial administration, community-based urban initiatives arise. What I would like to discuss in appreciation here are the kinds of initiatives trying to fill the gap left by the entrepreneurial administration, mostly driven by educated, taxpaying middle-class society.

This year welcomed a new one, Ruang Jakarta or Rujak, which is mostly Internet-based, using the address rujak.org. Initiated by, among others, an architect with a passion for environment and social issues, Marco Kusumawijaya, Rujak wants to create a network of residents of Greater Jakarta who want to do something for a better city. Within its young life, Rujak has drawn its readers’ attention to a broad range of urban issues, from earthquakes to floods, culture to local cuisine, and public space to waste management.

JP/Dina Indra Safitri

In a nutshell, everything that could help Jakarta become a sustainable metropolis. One could find a more visionary stance about Jakarta than one can find in any city agency in the administration. They say evaluate the malls, while the administration says they are open to new mall investments as long as the market allows.

Rujak is an addition to a list of initiatives that while criticizing the administration’s performance, also try to do something positive for Jakarta, a city that many people hate.

Recently, Governor Fauzi Bowo complained about the habit of littering, but as the leader of the city, he said he would not enforce the existing bylaw prohibiting littering, saying that it would be a hard feat as most of the perpetrators are poor people. Besides complaining, he has done nothing more.

But the Group Concerned About Waste, or Gropesh, stepped in years ago. They do campaigns, clean up garbage from public space on their own. And they say Fauzi lacks the political will and is only using poor people as an excuse not to do anything. Many prosperous residents litter too, Gropesh says.

Also in the social environment realm, there is the Jakarta Green Map, which regularly organizes gatherings to map the city. They have produced a map tracing city potentials along the Transjakarta corridors. They also have mapped lakes in Greater Jakarta. Recently, in cooperation with the Bike-to-Work Community (B2W), Green Map traced bicycle routes from Senayan in Central Jakarta to Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta.

Everybody fends for themselves in pro-market Jakarta, the urban poor too, though they are less publicized and most do not have organizations. Researcher AbdouMaliq Simone from London presented his report last year and among his findings in North Jakarta communities was that many of the residents got jobs not from the local administration, but from local gangs.

Simone said this was the result of a dysfunctional administration. He went on that in the long run, such informal authority could not work as it did not make people any better off. While communities like Rujak, Green Map, B2W, Gropesh and many others deserve heartfelt appreciation, I argue that the groups, or at least some of the job descriptions the group has assumed, are also the result of a dysfunctional or in Harvey’s word, entrepreneurial, administration.

For instance, if the administration carries out public services well, then communities like Green Map could focus more on mapping smaller-scale neighborhoods, their own, not mapping the Greater Jakarta lakes, which the administration should have done.

Essential to such entrepreneurial governance is the term public-private-partnership, Harvey says. In Jakarta’s case, oftentimes the administration claims the work of the communities by using this public-private-partnership scheme. It exerts minimum effort — the deployment of few agency officials and a small budget – while claiming a bonus: Increased public participation.

Lately, Jakarta has also seen an appropriation of community work for corporate interests. Green Map Indonesia has published an official statement to the effect that it refuses to join the Green Festival in Jakarta because the festival is sponsored by the Sinar Mas Group, a conglomerate currently in the spotlight for alleged massive logging that deforests Indonesia’s rainforests.

One could expect that the participation of Green Map Jakarta in the festival this year would be their last. It is important for the communities to be aware that the entrepreneurial administration and the market forces it supports so dearly have a great interest in the good and sincere work the communities do. While cooperation is generally good, communities should realize that one side could gain more than the other.

In the interests of these communities, I say strike a stronger bargain or even say no if necessary. My heart, and I’m sure the hearts of many, goes to you.

The author is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post.

Global warming threatens groundwater supply: Expert

Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 12/04/2009 5:14 PM

Not only is global warming putting thousands of Indonesia’s islands at risk of sinking, it also threatens the country's groundwater supply, an expert says.

Heru Hendrayana, a hydrogeologist from Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, said here Friday that groundwater volume in a number of regions has been proved to have reduced in the past few years, believed to be an impact of the warming earth.

"Global warming has led to climate change, which has immense influence upon the water cycle.

"It disrupts the wind and air pressure patterns and, in the end, causes changes in rainfall volume," Heru said after a discussion on drinking water in Jakarta.

He said although some regions enjoyed more rainfall due to the phenomenon, most suffered from less rain instead.

The reduced groundwater volume is evident in Yogyakarta and its surrounding areas, among others, he said.

Pollution is another threat for Indonesia's groundwater supply, especially in urban areas.

Heru said most groundwater supplies in metropolitan cities like Jakarta, Semarang and Surabaya were contaminated with E. coli bacteria because of poor sanitation, not to mention the vulnerability of groundwater to seawater intrusion.

The growing number of industries, gas stations, and carwashes in big cities has exacerbated the threat, said Heru, who is currently studying how far they have affected the groundwater supply.

To make matters worse, big cities, which are typically crowded with buildings, lack the capacity to absorb rainwater.

Heru said urban areas could only absorb 20 percent of rainwater, compared with 30 percent for suburban and 40 percent for rural areas.

President: Let's consider moving RI's capital

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 12/03/2009 10:50 AM

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said the idea of relocating of the national administration center from Jakarta should be considered.

Speaking to governors from across the archipelago at a gathering in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, on Wednesday evening, Yudhoyono said Jakarta was far too crowded to be the center of the national administration.

"Fifteen years ago there was a proposal to move the national administration center to Jonggol in West Java, but since the [1998] monetary crisis, ideas on relocating were no longer heard," he said as quoted by Antara state news agency.

Commenting on an idea to relocate the country’s capital to the Central Kalimantan city of Palangkaraya, Yudhoyono said it would not be practical because the city was too far from Jakarta.

But considering seeing the vast area of Palangkaraya, Yudhoyono said it was natural that its residents wanted to develop it into a better and bigger city.

He added it also made sense to develop Palangkaraya, because unlike other areas in the country, Kalimatan was relatively free of natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis.

Yudhoyono and his entourage are in the city for a two-day visit to open the Indonesian Provincial Administrations Association (APPSI) national conference on Thursday.

RI warned of missing 2015 clean water target

Fadli, The Jakarta Post , Batam, Riau Islands | Wed, 12/02/2009 9:56 PM

Indonesia is likely to fall short of achieving its Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of significantly improving access to clean water and sanitation facilities by 2015, warns the Association of All Indonesian Tap Water Companies (Perpamsi).

Poor clean water management, leakages and wasteful use of water are likely to cause the failure, it added.

Perpamsi head, Achmad Marju Kodri, told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the 11th Tap Water Company Conference in Batam, Riau Islands, on Wednesday that Indonesia had set its MDG target to ensure that 80 percent of urban dwellers and 60 percent of rural communities, which make up the total population, would have sustainable access to clean water by 2015.

However, the target is challenging as currently only 40 percent of urban residents and 30 percent of rural residents have access to potable water, he added.

“Indonesia definitely cannot reach its MDG target in terms of reducing the number of people without access to clean water due to various obstacles, such as poor clean water management and wasteful use of water. It also depends on the goodwill of the government,” said Kodri.

He said that only 60 percent of urban dwellers and 40 percent of rural residents in Indonesia would have access to drinking water.

“Cases of pipe leakages in Indonesia have reached 32 percent, people remain wasteful and most of the state-run tap water company (PDAM) heads in the regions are less professional, so much so that clean water supplies to residents are still ineffective and unequal,” said Kodri.

One in five residents in Mimika illiterate

Markus Makur, The Jakarta Post, Mimika, Papua | Tue, 11/10/2009 9:10 PM

More than 22 percent of the population of the Mimika regency in Papua, or about 40,000 people there, are illiterate.

Mimika, with a population of 175,000, ranks fifth in term of the illiteracy rate in the province, after Wamena, Merauke, Paniai and Nabire regencies, said Yesaya Sombuk, head of Mimika Education Agency, on Tuesday.

Papua itself has the highest illiteracy rate among the country’s 33 provinces

The agency is offering a three-month literacy course in the regency’s 12 districts with 1,200 residents joining the program, which kicked off Tuesday.

Those who are illiterate – both native Papuans and migrants – are found not only in remote areas, but also in urban areas, including in Timika, the regency’s capital. The first course, however, is targeting those in the hinterlands, mountains and coastal areas.

Mimika is home to one of the world’s richest gold mines operated by US-based company PT Freeport Indonesia.

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.

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