Jakarta's notorious floods result from the poor enforcement of city bylaws, particularly the issuing of building permits by government agencies that violate environmental standards, city and environmental experts said recently.
Selamet Daroyni, head of the Jakarta Green Institute's urban environmental education division, told a discussion at Mayapada Tower, South Jakarta, that one of the major contributors to Jakarta's floods was the unstoppable conversion of protected open space into buildings, especially for commercial use.
Daroyni also said that environmental impact analysis permits (Amdal), a requirement for building, were often ignored.
"I have data from the environment ministry showing that at least 80 percent of filed Amdal documents do not pass environmental standards, but construction, especially of commercial buildings keeps going on regardless," he said.
"We therefore appeal to Governor Fauzi Bowo's administration to hold a moratorium on commercial building permits and conduct environmental audits for existing buildings," he said.
Daroyni said he suspected the Jakarta administration had prioritized the potential of tax revenue at the expense of the environment.
"We conducted research of Jakarta's 2007 floods that cost the city administration Rp 7 trillion *US$700 million* in losses. That amounted to approximately 30 percent of the 2007 city budget. So, is boosting tax revenue by sacrificing the environment still worth it?" Daroyni said.
He cited the Taman Anggrek Mall and an apartment in Tomang, West Jakarta, as an example. The skyscraper building complex now stands in an area that the former governor, the late Ali Sadikin, declared as a protected open space, known as "Tomang city forest".
However, Daroyni was careful not to blame developers, "They might be wrong, but the government actually deserves the blame as they issue building permits that violate conservation zones."
The 2007 Spatial Planning Law stipulates that a minimum of 30 percent of the city must be designated for open space.
Jakarta however, has only 9 percent, Daroyni said.
"With limited open spaces, only one third of rainwater can be absorbed by the soil, the rest inundates the city," he said.
Rudy Tambunan, head of urban development at the University of Indonesia, who also attended the discussion, acknowledged the government had contributed to the problem.
"We formed a team following the big flooding in 2002. The team's analysis concluded the government was partially responsible for the flooding," the former employee of the city planning agency said.
"According to the 2007 law on spatial planning, fines and imprisonment are applicable not only to the people who build without proper permits, but also to government officers who issue permits that are not in accordance with city regulations," Tambunan explained.
Article 73 of the law stipulates that government officers who issue building permits that violate city regulations can be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison and a Rp 500 million fine.
However, no government officer has ever been charged under the law, Tambunan said.
While the government seems to have failed to manage the environment, the Jakarta Flood Management, a mitigation team that is a collaboration between the Dutch and Indonesian governments, raised the importance of community-based actions to reduce the impact of floods.
One simple example, they said, was to raise the awareness of residents living along Jakarta's riverbanks about the dangers of polluting and clogging Jakarta's river system. (bbs)
