Jakarta has long been the center of business and urban activities in the country and with the economy expanding the number of buildings and motor vehicles have increased, making air pollution and a lack of green space among the city’s greatest challenges.

On Tuesday, Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama officially opened a 1,500-square-meter child-friendly park in Jatinegara, East Jakarta.

Located in the Cipinang Besar Selatan Rusunawa, the park is equipped with a futsal court, decorative plants and hydroponic vegetables.

The park, officially known as a child friendly public space (RPTRA), was initiated by the city administration as an attempt to provide not only public space for children, but also to increase green space in the capital, which based on the latest data only makes up 9.98 percent of the city’s 661 square kilometers.

To date, the city administration has opened more than 50 RPTRA across the capital.

Despite having been officially opened by the governor, the RPTRA was built by development company PT Agung Podomoro through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, as Ahok has repeatedly said he always wants private firms to get involved in RPTRA projects so they will not burden the city budget.

“Private firms will get things done quickly and allow locals to be able to enjoy public parks and green areas sooner rather than later,” Ahok said during the inauguration of the park.

Based on City Public Parks and Cemetery Agency data, more than 90 percent of the 53 opened RPTRA as of June were built by private companies, including some that are involved in the controversial North Jakarta Bay reclamation project, like PT Agung Podomoro, PT Agung Sedayu and PT Intiland.

Ahok, however, has denied speculation that the private parties got something in exchange for building the parks. He made the statement in December when he officially opened a public space built by PT Intiland.

Jakarta, a city of 10 million, is known for having serious problems with air pollution, a situation that triggered the US Embassy to install air quality monitoring devices earlier this year to detect dangerous air particles on an hourly basis.

The results of the monitoring shows that for the last few days the city’s busy district of South Jakarta reached 158 on the Air Quality Index (AQI), a number that is considered unhealthy and could cause people to experience adverse health affects.

To meet 30 percent green spaces as regulated by the 2007 Spatial Planning Law, the city has long been trying to open more public parks. Since last year, the city has cooperated with private firms to build RPTRA as the governor expects the city to have 200 of them by the end of the year, emphasizing that he has ordered subdistrict heads to purchase land to build parks in their locations.

Meanwhile, commercial areas have also tried to increase green space. The Central Park shopping mall in West Jakarta, for example, had devoted a large portion of its property to open space.

“It is difficult to achieve above 10 percent. We have been stuck at 9 percent for several years now,” Ahok said recently.

However, experts considered that while RPTRA provide child-safe places and positive effects on the locals’ social interactions, they do not contribute anything to the environment.

Urban analyst Nirwono Joga said with its futsal courts, libraries and several rooms, RPTRA had more concrete floors than green grass, making it hard to do anything to prevent flooding, a required function of open green spaces.

He also highlighted that green spaces should be built at the center of the city as “city lungs” instead of in farflung residential areas like RPTRA were. “These are the wrong mindsets of green areas that we need to change,” he said.

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