Govt wants halth to new housing

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The State Ministry for the Environment has proposed a moratorium of new housing complex development projects in urban areas, in a bid to curb flooding and other environmental disasters.

The ministerial office said many real estate developers had expanded their projects, affecting water retention areas.

"We need to temporarily halt the development of new housing projects. It may take local government two or three years to develop more green spaces," Hermono Sigit, head of the river division at the ministry, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He said the recent floods that hit Jakarta were in partly caused by land development that sacrificed green spaces.

"If projects go ahead, urban areas will run out of green space. Then we will see more flooding, including in Jakarta," he said.

The ministry has recommended construction of apartments instead. It had previously proposed suspension of tree clearing across Java, to prevent floods, and suspension of car production to reduce air pollution in urban areas, but none of the proposals have been heeded so far.

Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar may propose the moratorium on new developments at the coming cabinet meeting.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla expressed concerns over the recent floods which hit Jakarta.

Hermono said the shrinking of open and green areas coupled with intensive development projects had made urban areas more prone to floods.

To make it worse, he said, rainfalls were expected to rise with climate change.

Jakarta and its buffer cities of Bogor, Bekasi, Depok and Tangerang (Jabodetabek) experienced the worst floods in 1996, 2002 and 2007.

In the 1996 floods, rainfalls were recorded at 221 mm per day. These climbed to 232 mm in 2002 and 327 mm in 2007, ministry data shows.

"If housing developments occupy new land, the floods will worsen," he said.

The ministry's land cover analysis revealed Indonesia's river basins were in a critical condition due to the rapid development of housing complexes.

"In the Cisadane river basin, only 10 percent of the original forest is remaining, and only 8 percent in the Ciliwung," he said.

The forestry law requires local administrations to protect at least 30 percent of forest areas in a river basin.

He said the development of river basins had also accelerated over the past five years.

"Housing complexes in the Ciliwung river basin increased 58 percent between 2000 and 2005," he said.

The ministry data shows 31 percent of the forested lands in the Bengawan Solo river basin in Central Java had been converted to agricultural areas while some 97.216 ha of the basin's forest was turned into residential areas.

The Forestry Ministry has planned to reforest upstream areas in 60 river basins, most of which are outside Java.

The ministry said there were 232 river basins in a critical condition.

Separately, developers had reclaimed coastal areas, including in North Jakarta, for construction of real estate and office buildings, Hermono said.

The reclamation project will affect a 32-kilometer stretch of the Jakarta's northern coastline and add about 2,700 hectares to Jakarta's area.

"Many buildings are also now standing in lake areas," he said.

Only five of the 45 lakes in Tangerang were still in good condition, he said.