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/strong>Oct. 15, Online

The Giant Sea Wall, an Rp 600 trillion (US$49.07 billion) construction project in the Masterplan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI) that started on Oct. 9, poses serious problems for Jakarta'€™s residents, NGOs have said.

The People'€™s Coalition for Fisheries Justice Indonesia (KIARA) and the Indonesian Traditional Fishermen'€™s Association (KNTI) said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the Giant Sea Wall would not only remove thousands of local people and fishermen from their homes but was also unlikely to be effective in resolving the flooding and water crisis that had long disrupted the lives of Jakarta'€™s residents.

Your comments:

In confrontations between developers and environmentalists in the past, I almost always side with the latter, as the willy-nilly '€œdevelopments'€ are often simply motivated by monitory profit going to the pockets of the developers, ministries involved, the corrupt representatives, etc.

The giant sea wall project, however, is different. This endeavor seems to have a good historical background and promise of benefit for the future.

I read somewhere that Batavia, i.e. Jakarta, was built by the Dutch colonialists who missed their home land, where the land was at the same level or even lower level than the sea surface.

It is unbelievable that only now is there a serious attempt to remedy the problem. The giant sea wall will deny some people the use of that strip of the beach; on the other hand it will benefit some other people who need the land. The sea people still have more sea than they would know what to do with.

Hardja Susilo