Jakarta cemeteries will be full by 2013: Official
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 03/12/2011 9:43 AM
Adding to Jakarta’s long list of problems, a city official has said that all available land for graves in Jakarta will be sold out by 2013.
The city now has only 31.8 hectares of land available for graves, from a total area of 590 hectares spread across 95 cemeteries, Jakarta Parks and Cemeteries Agency head Catarina Suryowati said Friday.
About 40,000 Jakartans die on average every year, she said.
“Some places like Joglo, Karet Bivak and Tanah Kusir cemeteries are indeed already packed,” Catarina said, as quoted by kompas.com.
She said the city was planning to add new burial grounds totaling 202 hectares so that there would be enough space for burials through 2021.
“But, they won’t be able to be used yet because we haven’t allocated a budget for it this year,” Catarina said, adding that the cost of acquiring the land might cost billions of rupiah.
Separately, the Central Jakarta administration’s cemetery unit head Leofold Pasaribu said there was practically no more lots left for the deceased to be buried in Central Jakarta cemeteries. He said the only option was to bury the deceased in already occupied graves.
