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Time for redesign as pandemic takes toll on Jakarta’s transformation
In cramped Jakarta, community-level initiatives to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic have proven to be more impactful than the state-led COVID-19 response. Authorities need to tap into this and direct their focus on health.
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Invisible threat: Wearing a hazmat suit, a member of the TransJakarta supporters community holds up a placard with the latest COVID-19 case figures in Jakarta to remind passengers of complying with health protocol at the Harmoni bus shelter in Central Jakarta, on Friday. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he upheaval that has come with the COVID-19 outbreak has put a dent in many urban development plans around the world, including in the transformation of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta into a resilient and forward-looking city.
But the failure of its public health system to anticipate the pandemic has urban development experts pushing for a swift redesign of the city – one that is at once inclusive and geared toward health.
Post-pandemic Jakarta needs to be healthier, including by having sufficient access to water, sanitation and waste management, and there is no better time than the present to implement it, believes Yurdhina Meilissa, chief strategist at the Center of Indonesia Strategic Development Initiatives.
She said the importance of such bare necessities had long been thrown about in policymaking discussions, but their application had remained weak.
“This is the right moment to enforce it, especially as people demand [more] healthy buildings,” the CISDI researcher told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
The United Nations estimates that over 90 percent of COVID-19 cases are reported in urban regions and areas with higher interconnectivity compared with rural areas, placing them at a higher risk of the disease.
In Jakarta, the official tally had reached 104,874 COVID-19 positive cases as of Friday, more than a quarter of the purported nationwide figure of 406,945.
