TheJakartaPost
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Persistent urban poverty snapshot of economic disparities
Robitan’s relocation is a part of a US$74.4 million project of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to improve living conditions of poor neighborhoods in 20 cities across Indonesia, with the help of Public Works and Housing Ministry.
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Illustration picture of houses surrounding a riverbank. (The Jakarta Post/Wendra Ajistyatama)
S
eeing trees hunkering low on a windswept hill is all new for Robitan, 39, who gazed at the surroundings of his house at the Jatiwangi relocation site, West Nusa Tenggara, on Tuesday afternoon.
In contrast to the new abode, his former squatter house at a nearby slum rests on low ground surrounding the riverbank, inundated at least four times a year, he said. To make matters worse, a 2-meter current had once ravaged most of the nearby settlements to the ground in 2016.
“Grey clouds used to make me anxious. What belongings will I lose this time from the flood?” the part time motorcycle taxi driver lamented. “So the relocation is a beacon of hope for my family [...] Insya Allah [God Willing], we won’t lose anything anymore now."
Robitan’s relocation is a part of a US$74.4 million project of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to improve living conditions of poor neighborhoods in 20 cities across Indonesia, with the help of Public Works and Housing Ministry.
The ADB has financed more than just urban public work projects, as the infrastructure bank in 2018 committed $1.7 billion in sovereign loans to Indonesia, encompassing public expenditure management, economic competitiveness, emergency assistance and higher education programs.
Between 1966 and 2018, the ADB disbursed a cumulative $29.09 billion to Indonesia.
Since the 1998 Asian financial crisis, Indonesia’s economy has grown tenfold and per capita income eightfold, as quoted by the ADB’s press release, putting Indonesia in the middle-income status in 2004 and becoming a G20 member in 2008. Poverty levels also fell to single-digit levels for the first time last year.
