S

ome nine small lakes in districts within the Tangerang municipality are currently in poor condition, while others have been reclaimed for the expansion of shopping malls as well as residential housing complexes and a further three have even gone missing.

The missing lakes include 70-hectare Situ Rawa Kompeni in Rawa Bokor, Benda district, which was totally reclaimed for the construction of a turnpike to the airport. Others include Situ Lawad, Cipondoh district, which was reclaimed to make room for office buildings and Situ Kambing in the Cileduk district, also reclaimed for a soccer field.

Data from the municipal Development Planning Agency showed the combined size of the remaining small lakes in the municipality had continued to reduce, from 257 hectares to 153 hectares.

The four small lakes in poor condition are Situ Cipondoh, Situ Gede and Situ Bulakan and Situ Rawa Pinang.

According to head of the agency Dadang Durahman, the municipality's ability to control floods and act as a water catchment area reduced as a result of small lakes disappearing.

He said several small lakes had been neglected, increasing the number of areas prone to flooding in the municipality.

"In 2000, there were only 49 flood points in the municipality, but the figure increased to 63 in 2007," he said Thursday.

Tangerang Mayor Wahidin Halim said the administration would soon make an inventory of the remaining small lakes across the municipality.

"The regional autonomy law does not give municipalities the authority to manage small lakes, so their management is still in the hands of the central government," he said.

"As a matter of fact, we would like to allocate funds from the annual budget for the maintenance and revitalization of small lakes in the city, but the problem is we are not given the authority to manage lakes, so it will be impossible," he added.

Wahidin said residents could not be expected to protect small lakes as water catchment areas as they didn't care.

The Jakarta Post noticed most small lakes in the municipality were dirty, dry and shallow because residents now used them as garbage dumps, while part of the lakes' banks had been reclaimed to build business premises.

Both residents and housing developers can easily reclaim land on the lakes' banks without fear of reprisal from the administration, because they can argue there is no certificate of ownership for land around the lakes.

Wahidin, however, argued a 2004 law on nature conservation provided the legal basis for his administration to manage the small lakes.