TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Fishermen will be relocated to Thousand Islands: Ahok
Change Size
Fishermen race to snatch offerings from a boat during Sedekah Laut Nadran, an annual traditional ritual to celebrate the peak of the fishing season in Kali Adem, Muara Angke, North Jakarta, in December 2015. ( JP/Seto Wardhana)
J
akarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama plans to relocate fishermen currently operating off Jakarta’s coast to Thousand Islands regency once the reclamation in the Jakarta Bay proceeds on a massive scale.
“The Jakarta Bay is highly contaminated with heavy metals,” said Ahok, responding to the protest by dozens of fishermen, who expressed their opposition to the city administration’s program to carry out reclamation work in the Jakarta Bay.
Previously, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti had called on the city administration to find solutions for hundreds of households that rely on catching fish for their daily earnings.
Whether or not the reclamation would go ahead, relocating fishermen to Thousand Islands should happen in any case due to the heavy pollution in the Jakarta Bay, he added.
The city administration will prepare fishermen kampung on certain islands of the regency to accommodate those that currently catch fish for a living, he said, adding that the fishermen would not only rely on their catches but also on fish that they cultivated.
Ahok said the city would also develop low-cost apartment buildings in the regency and would provide fishermen with free boats for their daily transportation.
“We plan to provide fishermen with better sanitation in their neighborhoods. They will cultivate fish so that they will not only rely on fish they catch,” said Ahok, who expressed his optimism that fishermen would agree with his plan.
Through its reclamation program, the city administration plans to develop 17 islets in Jakarta Bay. Then-governor Fauzi Bowo issued one permit, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo did not issue any permits and Ahok issued five. The project is part of the Giant Seawall project intended to prevent the city from being hit by tidal flooding. (bbn)
