It was a shady afternoon in Pantai Mutiara, North Jakarta. A man was hauling a motorboat from the dark green water and several cars were parked in the lot of Jetski café, one of the recreational centers in the area.
A dozen or so meters away, the turbid seawater lapped against a dike built along the coastline, above which is a notice board warning people not to sail there.
Along other parts of the coastline are dozens of half-a-meter-high mangrove trees, which look as though they had been recently planted.
Four high-rise apartment towers and many big luxurious houses loom over the site, which is a new part of the Pantai Mutiara exclusive residential compound.
Jamaludin, an employee of a cruise ship who lives with his employer at the complex, said the
residential housing complex had been completed a year ago, and that the apartments were just eight months old.
“Some of them are already occupied and the developer will continue building houses,” he said.
According to Jamal, during high tide, seawater inundates areas of the complex nearest the sea in knee-high water, even though the management had built two pump houses to prevent this.
Pantai Mutiara is one of several coastal reclamation projects currently in process despite a Supreme Court ruling against such developments.
In 2003, the Jakarta Administrative Court ruled in favor of six companies under BP Pantura, a body tasked with managing the development of the North Coast, to reclaim 2,700 hectares of land under the sea.
However, the Supreme Court then annulled the verdict, prompting the companies to file a lawsuit against the decree, which they feared would burden them with massive financial losses.
Near the fishing village of Muara Angke, a reclamation project currently in action has cleared a kilometer of coastline and covered it with stones.
Sri, a mobile vendor in the area, said that the low-lying area used to lie under the sea.
“But it was dredged more than a year ago to build a port.” She said she had heard the project would be completed by 2013.
Sahyudi, a fisherman, said that a port would soon be built in the area.
“This port will connect this area with nearby places, such as the Thousand Islands [regency], and also be home to ships to various destinations,” he said.
He said fishermen had once cultivated green seashells in the area, but had long since been evicted.
He also said that the development of the reclaimed area in the nearby Pantai Indah Kapuk had absorbed large portions of the Muara Angke nature conservation area. In the northern area of Ancol, not far from Ancol Dreamland Park, preparations had begun for the reclamation project.
Many sacks of sand had been stacked on bamboo rafts lining the shore.
Totok, a site manager for the project, said his team had started building dikes for the reclamation project three months ago.
“We plan to fill this area to reach the Putri Duyung resort area [in the dreamland park], which will be done in two phases,” he said, adding that the project involved three construction companies.
However, Totok refused to say what the reclaimed area would be used for. (lnd)
