Creating healthy cities responsibility of all

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 04/24/2007 3:17 PM  |  Opinion

Nirwono Joga, Jakarta

Jakarta seems to be continuously plagued by misfortunes. The dengue fever epidemic is not surprising; it is a simple reflection of the city's worsening environmental quality.

The city's many disasters, including floods, fires, air pollution, clean water crises, land subsidence, sea water infiltration -- and diseases such as dengue, bird flu, diarrhea and acute respiratory infections -- have never been properly overcome.

A revision of the Spatial Layout Law was endorsed by the House of Representatives on March 27, 2007.

One crucial point in this law is the creation of healthy cities.

Each city is required to spare a 30 percent green belt, comprising 20 percent public open space and 10 percent private open space.

The phenomenon of ecological suicide (JO Simmonds, 1960) and urban suicide (John Rennie Short, 2006) is a political reality.

The collusion between executives, legislators, developers and city planners has caused environmental degradation and cyclic mishaps.

Jakarta's green belt target has been increasingly reduced from 37.2 percent in the 1965-1985 Jakarta Master Plan, to 25.85 percent in the 1985-2005 Jakarta Spatial Layout Plan -- and further to 13.94 percent in the 2000-2010 Regional Spatial Layout Plan.

In a Jakarta neighborhood-area-evaluation for 2010, during the period 2000-2005, the city lost 3,860 ha of open space (known as RTH).

This huge loss saw 476 ha of parks or sports grounds, and 3,384 ha of water resorption areas completely disappear.

The Indonesian Environment Forum (Walhi) says the city's RTH shrank by 450 ha during 2000-2004 or 90 ha annually.

In 2006, only 9.12 percent or 6,900 ha were left. This was mainly due to the construction of shopping centers, horizontal (or landed) housing and gigantic infrastructure -- at the expense of open space for purposes of short-term economic development. This yardstick of city development success has been ignoring urban environment sustainability and public health.

Meanwhile, the world's major cities are racing for appropriate rates of open space: New York is targeting 25.2 percent for 2020; Tokyo is raising its goal from 29 percent to 32 percent (2015); London is aiming for 39 percent (2020); Singapore 19 percent plus a 37 percent green belt reserve (2034); Beijing is increasing its score from 38 percent to 43 percent (2008); and Curitiba (Brazil) is seeking to reach 17 percent plus a 13 percent green belt reserve (2020).

Curitiba sets its RTH standard at 50 m2/capita, quadrupling the minimum standard recommended by the World Health Organization.

The ratio of RTH in Japan is 5m2/capita, Britain 7-11 m2/capita, Malaysia 2m2/capita -- against 0.45 m2/capita in Bandung and 0.55 m2/capita in Jakarta.

Singapore puts it at 0.4 ha per 1,000 people in housing/real estates, while requiring a 10-ha park in a district, a 1.5-ha park in each apartment/hotel block, a green base coefficient of 60 percent for a settlement complex and 40 percent for a commercial complex.

A healthy city is one whose residents can lead a decent life, meet their basic needs (food, clothing, shelter), get proper education and jobs, and where public space is available with the basic health guarantee of freedom from the threat of neighborhood epidemics.

A healthy and economically growing city is like two sides of the same coin.

According to the World Health Organization (1992), a healthy city project is rooted in the concept of what a city is -- and a vision of what a healthy city can become.

A city is viewed as a complex organism -- a living, breathing, growing and constantly changing organism.

A healthy city is one that improves its environment and expands its resources so that people can support each other and achieve their highest potential.

A lot of evidence has shown the correlation between a city with appropriate open green space and neatly arranged environment, and the creation of a healthy city. A city with a sustainable and sound economy never fails to adopt the concept of a healthy city.

To this end, the government and planners should accurately design city spatial layout schemes so that developers and city dwellers utilize urban space properly.

The government and the city's urban residents should strictly control spatial designation.

Development projects occupying RTH areas must have their licenses suspended, reviewed and revoked.

The government and society should improve neighborhood and housing areas to make them clean and healthy, with clean water supply, hygienic sanitation, smooth drainage channels, environment-friendly waste management, sound public behavior and a proven response to disasters.

With Jakarta's population density standing at 14,000/km2 (2007) and the city's current land limitations, the government should promote public awareness -- particularly in crowded and building-packed locations vulnerable to disasters and epidemics.

Residents should be able to move to decent vertical housing with lower collective costs of drinking water and electricity, collective septic tanks for better sanitation and more public parks.

Jakarta's provincial administration has to increase the number of public parks, cemeteries, sports grounds and urban forests in order to expand RTH significantly.

The governments must do more than create green yards, revitalize mangrove forests and restore the functions of green belts along river plains, rail tracks, beneath flyovers and high voltage transmission lines -- they must do all of this and more in a humane manner.

The development of healthy cities has been carried out in neighboring countries such as in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Manila and certainly Singapore, which is well-known for maintaining a clean and healthy city environment.

In fact, Singapore administration is so serious on this matter, it will soon be recorded under the Global Healthy Cities Movement.

So what about Jakarta and the other cities in Indonesia?

Healthy cities cannot be built within a short time.

There must be a continuous effort from the government. It must illustrate its transparent, accountable and motivating stance.

And the public -- the community -- must ensure its contribution and participation, because these are badly needed. Otherwise, we will always be at a loss whenever disasters and epidemics hit our city.

The writer is Chairman of the Indonesian Landscape Architecture Study Group, Jakarta.

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