T

he industrial island of Batam, Riau Islands, is at risk of experiencing a baby boom in the next five years due to rapid migration from other provinces, putting its limited land area and clean water supplies under increasing pressure, an official says.

The current birth rate in Batam is around 100 infant births per day, or between 36,000 and 37,000 births annually, Riau Islands National Family Planning Board head Ipin Husni told The Jakarta Post on Monday. This figure is considered high given Batam city's area of only 715 square kilometers and its limited clean water supply.

"The number of fertile married couples migrating from other areas to Batam has triggered the high birth rate, and especially the high number of fertile couples who are not involved in the family planning program," Ipin said.

According to BKKBN data, at present there are 173,110 fertile married couples in Batam and only 112,414 of them are in the family planning program, 60,696 preferred not to take part in the program, and 6,765 of them are expecting.

"If in the next five years the fertile mothers give birth at the same time, the surge in the number of births, or a baby boom would take place in Batam. The social impacts of that would be very complex, because of the limited education facilities and other basic necessities," Ipin said.

The family planning office could not prevent fertile married couples from having children because this would violate basic human rights, Ipin said. However, it does expect the provincial administration and Batam municipality to anticipate this issue and prepare measures in facing a baby boom.

"It must provide adequate education facilities, schools, community health centers and clean water supplies - which currently rely on a handful of reservoirs in Batam. The provincial administration should anticipate this," Ipin said.

Based on the national average, the birth rate in Batam is high. Its current population of the island currently stands at 913,000. Compared to the national average of two children to a family, a family in Batam has up to three.

"The family planning program is identical to *that which was introduced under* former president Soeharto.

"We face challenges to make people aware of the importance of family planning to control the population, especially since many personalities and public figures are saying they want to have lots of children.

"Now, we are beginning to promote family planning again like in the 1970s, but we have a limited capacity, because this is the responsibility of the provincial administration," Ipin said.

Among the drawbacks is the limited number of family planning counselors in Riau Islands, despite the fact each village should have at least one counselor to make the program successful, he said.

With limited infrastructure, including clean water sources, social facilities and restricted land area, Batam was only fit to accommodate 1 million people, and anything above this could spark social problems, Batam Mayor Ahmad Dahlan said recently.