Re-Greening Jakarta

ENVIRONMENTAL experts say that Jakarta is committing ecological suicide. The air quality in Indonesia’s capital city has become so bad that in 2006 the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that Jakarta had become the third most-polluted city in the world after Mexico City and Bangkok. In one year of living in Jakarta we only enjoy clean air for 22 days, 223 days of medium-quality air, 95 days breathing unhealthy air and four days of extremely unhealthy air. Around 80 percent of Jakarta’s air pollution is caused by vehicle exhaust emissions and 20 percent from industry.

During the massive floods last February, around 69 percent of the city was inundated. During a similar disaster in 2002, “only” around 25 percent was submerged. And during the dry season Jakarta runs short of water. It turns out that the ground level is sinking by 2-8 centimeters per year. According to the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), seawater intrusion has already reached as far as the National Monument in Central Jakarta.

The largest cause for the slump in the quality of Jakarta’s environment is the increasing decline of open green space. As we know, open green space not only functions as the city’s lungs, but also as a buffer against all of the effects of environmental damage. This is truly regrettable because Jakarta once had a city administration plan that was very pro-environment, the 1965-1985 Jakarta Master Plan, which was also the city’s first master plan. Included in the design was the concept of a greenbelt which would be a part of open green space covering 37.2 percent of the city’s land area. Only around 10 percent of this open green space now remains.

In order to add some spice to the start of Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo’s term in office, in this issue Tempo is featuring a report on Jakarta’s city administration and green open spaces. We want to illustrate just how much Jakarta’s environment has changed—and for the negative. Some believe it is the time to halt this decline. One example is what is being done by residents such as Chaerudin at the Pesanggrahan River and Abdul Khodir in Condet (see Safeguarding Our Grandchildren’s Future). They are now enjoying a small slice of a greener Jakarta.