Despite promises that all those evicted as a result of the city’s dredging project would receive compensation, Governor Fauzi Bowo said the city would prioritize treatment for those with Jakarta identity cards.
These residents would receive low-cost apartments as additional compensation for the eviction.
“I will continue to favor the city’s [legal] residents. [Squatters] who possess Jakarta ID cards are numerous and we don’t have an unlimited number of low-cost apartments,” he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
He said the city planned to hand out money to squatters without Jakarta ID cards so they could go back to their hometowns.
The administration, Fauzi said, would use the city budget to finance the relocation plan.
“There will be no violent resettlement because there is always compensation. The amount is stipulated in regulations,” he said, referring to the Resettlement Policy Framework that the administration jointly designed with the World Bank for the dredging project.
Fauzi said the relocation of those affected by the dredging project would be governed by the Resettlement Policy Framework.
The Jakarta Urgent Flood Mitigation Project (JUFMP), previously known as the Jakarta Emergency Dredging Initiative (JEDI), will use a US$150 million loan from the World Bank.
The project is expected to restore drainage systems at 15 sites by 2014 to reduce the impact of major floods, such as the 2007 flood that affected 2.6 million Jakarta residents.
Fauzi expressed optimism that the project would be able to get started early next year, saying that a 2006 government regulation on the disbursement of the bank’s loans and grants was revised in favor of the project.
“Another government regulation will be finished in October,” he said, referring to a 2005 government regulation on regional loans.
The city, Fauzi said, would prepare the relevant infrastructure and programs, including cleaning the drainage system, before carrying out the project to make sure that the flood mitigation project ran well.
He said the city would involve the community by raising their sense of ownership because they would have to take care of the environment after the completion of the project.
The dredging projects will begin in locations without residential dwellings. Areas that would require evictions are scheduled to be dredged in 2012 or 2013.
Five locations with large populations of squatters are the Kali Adem River, the Upper Sunter and the Lower Angke Drains in North Jakarta, the Pakin-Jelakeng-Kali Besar river streams in West Jakarta, and the Krukut-Cideng Drain river streams in Central Jakarta.
World Bank senior technical advisor Stephen F. Lintner said the resettlement policy framework would govern how involuntary resettlement would be handled in the
operation.
“For resistance, we would conduct effective communication and outreach and engagement programs with the community to avoid any type of disruption to the operation,” he said.
Commenting on the Urban Poor Consortium’s (UPC) plan to sue the World Bank if the relocation commenced, Hongjoo Hahm, a flood specialist at the World Bank said he hoped to talk to the local NGO to understand the issues that concerned them.
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