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urabaya city administration has rejected the East Java governor's offer to allow people evicted from the banks of the Kalimas River in Jagir, Wonokromo, to build temporary kiosks, arguing that this contradicted its municipal policy.

Municipal administration assistant B.F. Sutadi said letting the people build temporary stalls to do business along the riverbanks could create jealousy among others who had previously been evicted from the area.

"The municipal and provincial administrations should be in one voice in controlling the riverbank areas, especially those in the Surabaya regions," Sutadi said Monday.

East Java Governor Soekarwo previously told the Jagir evictees that they would be allowed to erect temporary shelters along the banks of the Kalimas River to sell merchandise, but said they were not allowed to reside there.

However, Sutadi said Surabaya municipal administration would insist on its previous plan to demolish illegal buildings from areas next to the Kalimas River (also known as the Surabaya River).

The issue has attracted the attention of government and non-government organizations, as well as international institutions.

A meeting on Monday, organized by the Urban Poor Consortium in cooperation with a number of institutions including the association of riverbank communities along the Surabaya River, the alliance of Surabaya City council and the Surabaya-based Hang Tuah University, was held to discuss residential problems in riverbank areas and aimed to find possible solutions for them.

Among speakers at the forum was urban observer Prof Abdoumaliq Simone of Goldsmiths University of London.

Simone said participation from other residents in the city was needed to solve residential problems in riverbank areas. Such problems were not just the problem of the people in those areas, but also the rest of the city.

Eviction was not the solution to controlling riverbank occupancy, since this would take a lot of budget, Simone said. "The city administration also needs to hear and accommodate suggestions from its people so as to find fair solutions for both residents and the municipal administrations," he said.

The city needed to be developed for the benefit of all people and not just for the rich, Simone said. "This means that in developing the city, the administration also needs to allocate space for the poor."

Another speaker, Hermawan Some, said many riverbank residents of the Kalimas River, especially in the Gunung Sari area, had developed environmentally friendly measures. They had renovated their houses by making them face the river, he said.