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s a regular subscriber to The Jakarta Post and occasional contributor to Readers'€™ Forum, I feel honor-bound to comment on the editorial on the giant reclamation project published on Saturday, July 19.

Normally, my contributions to Readers'€™ Forum are generated by articles and letters in the Post and never by an editorial; however, in this case I must break with tradition.

Of course the environmental consequences of such a huge project will need to be examined carefully and comprehensively but the highly experienced, world-class Dutch consultants who are the architects of the project have carried out extensive environmental studies and, on balance, believe the positive impacts of the project outweigh the negative impacts.

The project has not been planned in isolation from other major infrastructure projects currently being implemented or planned for the Greater Jakarta area; water supply in particular is being addressed by the planned new twin pipeline from Jatiluhur to Bekasi, plus the building of the Karimun reservoir in Banten, and the dredging of Jakarta'€™s rivers, the cleaning of drains, the building of new roadside drains and the construction of the flood relief tunnel between the Ciliwung River and the East Flood Canal.

David E. Parry
Jakarta