Jakarta coastal areas may disappear in coming decades

The Jakarta Post 25 Sep 10;

Four districts on the north coast of Jakarta could be submerged within a century if the city administration does not address environmental issues in its spatial planning policies, an expert said.

“Research shows that the sea level on Jakarta’s coast has increased at a rate of 57 millimeters per year because of the effects of global warming on the polar ice caps,” Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) oceanology department chief Safwan Hadi said Friday.

The districts of Pademangan, Penjaringan, Tanjung Priok and Cilincing in North Jakarta would be flooded by a half-meter of sea water by 2100, Safwan said.

“However, the city will probably lose those areas sooner as we also find that soil in the area is subsiding by between 5 and 12 centimeters each year,” he added.

The Indonesian Water Society previously stated that Jakarta was slowly sinking, warning that North Jakarta will be completely submerged within 50 years when the sea would reach Jl. Hayam Wuruk in Central Jakarta, around 5 kilometers inland.

Safwan criticized the Jakarta administration’s decision to continue development plans in North Jakarta despite expert suggestions to put the plans on hold pending a reassessment to better cope with deteriorating environmental conditions.

If the administration wanted to continue its development plans in North Jakarta, he urged officials to start making plans to prevent the city from sinking, Safwan said.

“The administration can build strong dikes following the Dutch example, where their country’s landscape and features are similar to Jakarta,” he said, adding that about 40 percent of the area in Jakarta was below sea level. (rch)

Many government policies not environmentally friendly : expert
Antara 22 Sep 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Many policies pursued by the government have not been environmentally friendly and thus caused environmental damage, an urban and environmental development expert of Tarumanegara University, Dr. Darrundono. said.

He made the statement in a discussion on the threat of collapse Indonesia`s coastal cities are facing, organized by Institut Hijau (Green Institute) here Wednesday.

The environmental damage was worsened by climate change, he said.

The construction of flats or apartments and shopping centers in Jakarta had drastically reduced areas which were supposed to absorb water and serve environmental buffers, he said.

Villas built in the Puncak region had taken 30 percent of farming land, he said adding that of the 226 lakes existing in the Jabodetabek (Jakarta-Bogor-Depok-Tangerang-Bekasi) region, only 33 were still functioning maximally economically and ecologically.

As a result, Jakarta was often hit by floods and sea water intrusions.
It was now also hard to find ground water in the capital and some part of Jakarta were now actually sinking, Dr. Darundono said.

Citing an example, he mentioned the recent collapse of Jalan Martadinata due to the intrusion of sea water into soil on which the street leading to Tanjung Priok port was built.

He predicted that similar incidents would happen in other coastal cities in Indonesia in time to come.

Due to climate change, the sea level in Jakarta Bay would rise and push the coastline 15 meters inland, he said.

Meanwhile, Green Institute chairman Chalid Muhammad said other cities in Indonesia might collapse ecologically and also economically due to the massive exploitation of natural resources and unorganized urban development.

Climate change could also cause a sinking of the ground surface and a sea level rise at the same time, he said.

"The sea level in the Jakarta Bay has already undergone a significant rise and sea water is already permeating the sub-soil in certain parts of the capital. Semarang, capital of Central Java, is already seeing high tides on its coasts almost every day," he said.

Land reclamation would not be a solution and cause other problems, he said, adding that a fundamental change needed to be made in the current environment management paradigm to save the environment.(*)