T

he revitalization project of Pluit dam in North Jakarta has encountered many obstacles from squatters who have long occupied a part of the dam.

Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) coordinator Edi Saidi said on Sunday that the squatters rejected being relocated unless the city administration provided them with a permanent solution.

'They need proper housing close to their workplaces,' he said.

Edi, whose organization was now representing 1,200 poor families around the dam, said the existing low cost apartments in Marunda, Muara Angke and Muara Baru in North Jakarta were not enough to accommodate all squatters.

According to Edi, around 6,800 families of squatters were now occupying 20 hectares of the 80 hectare dam.

Edi said the city had only allotted 2.3 hectares of land to build new apartments near the dam and it could only accommodate 700 families.

'The city administration needs to buy other land plots near the dam,' he said, adding that squatters wanted to own the units, not rent them.

The city has succeeded in relocating 420 families in those apartments, with rent prices ranging from Rp 150,000 (US$15.45) toRp 250,000.

Edi urged the city administration to involve the squatters in the process of their relocation. Besides asking for housing, other squatters have demanded financial compensation from the administration.

Some of them even filed a report to the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), accusing Governor Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo of using 'armed personnel' to persuade squatters to move.

University of Indonesia sociologist Otho Hernowo Hadi emphasized that the administration should communicate the relocation in a persuasive manner. 'The administration legally has the right to relocate them but the process should be humane,' he said, adding that many of the squatters were legitimate Jakarta residents.

Otho said the city should also monitor land plots prone to being occupied by squatters, so the same incident would not reoccur.

Elisa Sutanudjaja, an analyst with city planning watchdog the Rujak Center, said normalizing the water reservoirs, including the Pluit dam, in Jakarta, was a must.

'The dam has never been dredged since it was built,' she said, adding that the normalization should have been a routine program of the government.

' JP/Corry Elyda