Jakarta Globe 15 Jan 09;
Destruction of Jakarta’s mangrove population might be the cause of massive floods in the city’s coastal areas, environmental activists said on Wednesday.
Slamet Daryoni, the executive director of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Forum for Environment, or Walhi, said that in 20 years the city's mangrove areas had been reduced from 1,400 hectares to just 45 hectares, a mere dot in Jakarta’s total area of 661 square kilometers.
“Originally, most of the Jakarta Bay area was covered with mangroves,” he said. “Now, almost all of the mangrove areas have had to make way for housing, commercial and industrial areas."
Research by the Bandung Institute of Technology, or ITB, in 2002 warned that the disappearance of mangroves would increase flooding danger, but the warning seemed to fall on deaf ears.
“Not until there was a massive development project around the Jakarta Bay area in the 1980s did Jakarta begin to experience massive floods like the ones we see today,” Slamet said.
“Jakarta must evaluate such projects and rethink its master plan.”
Mangroves offer a natural buffer to rising sea levels, protecting surrounding areas from floods.
Pollution and poor waste management have also been a blight on the mangrove population, with new trees dying within weeks of their planting, said Hendra Michael Aquan, coordinator of a volunteer group that seeks to safeguard Jakarta’s remaining wetlands.
“Because of the plastic and liquid waste, efforts to reintroduce mangroves into the area have been fruitless.”
