Need to move Indonesia's capital growing urgent in face of climate change, experts say

Veby Mega Reuters AlertNet 28 Oct 10;

JAKARTA (AlertNet) - Sea level rise, worsening flooding and land subsidence in and around Jakarta have prompted Indonesian officials to resurrect plans to move the country's capital - but local residents and experts say Jakarta itself will not survive unless it adapts to cope with climate change.

Plans to relocate Indonesia's central government, parliament and public offices to another province on the island of Java or to another island in the Indonesian archipelago have been proposed on and off since the 1930s because of problems in Jakarta including overcrowding and rising sea level, which has led to worsening flooding.

But environmental experts now say a move is urgent to allow officials to soften the impact of climate change on the congested city of 9.6 million people.

"Moving the capital will reduce the city's burden to provide infrastructure and services to its people so that authorities can start re-planning city development," said Sonny Keraf, Indonesia's environment minister between 1999 and 2001, and now a university professor and environmental expert.

Still, "in terms of climate change adaptation, it won't be easy," he added.

While a number of locations for a new capital have been considered over the years, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, parliamentarians and other officials now believe the island of Kalimantan, formerly known as Borneo, is the best choice.

Kalimantan is the world's third-largest island and its land structure makes it more resilient to earthquakes and rising sea level. A new capital would most likely be located inland at Palangkaraya.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, is highly vulnerable to climate change, with 24 of the country's 33 provinces at risk from rising sea level, according to the national Fisheries and Maritime Department. One of these most vulnerable areas is the north coast of Jakarta.

From late 2009 to the end of 2010, flooding problems associated with sea level rise have cost Jakarta $1 billion, a figure that could rise to $16 billion a year by 2050, according to government statistics.

The costs rise from lengthy traffic jams, factories halting work because of floods and damage to livelihoods.

DAILY FLOODS

Residents of the fishing village of Muara Angke on Jakarta's north coast - an area rich in mangrove swamps - say they now live with the effects of flooding on a daily basis.

Flood waters of 30 centimetres to 1 metre fill the village most evenings, often leaving unpleasant smells as the water floods the local fish market and sewerage systems.

"It's always flooding like this every day. We've got used to it," said May Mariana, 43, who has lived in Jakarta all her life.

But Mariana and other locals, who would stay in Jakarta if the capital were relocated, are concerned plans to move the country's administration could leave them without protection and support when severe flooding occurs.

Floodwaters up to two metres deep covered Muara Angke in 2007, due to sea level rise, overflowing sewers and blocked drainage channels. During the crisis, the government responded quickly because the area was part of the capital and received a lot of media attention, residents said.

"I worry if Jakarta is no longer the capital, the government will care less and less about us," Mariana said.

POOR URBAN PLANNING

Poor urban planning is exacerbating the problem of flooding in Muara Angke, said Keraf, who is a member of the opposition party to Yudhoyono's government.

In previous years, developers have built high-rise apartment blocks and buildings in the area and tried to offset boosts in sea level by independently pumping water out of the area and building local dams, which worsened flooding elsewhere.

To ease the problem, the Jakarta city government drew up a development plan for the city's north coast in 1993. The idea of the Waterfront City plan, as it was called, was to create new coastal land by filling it waterfront areas and raising their level, as Singapore has done on a large-scale.

The new land was intended to become an exclusive business and investment zone by 2020.

The Environment Ministry rejected the plan in 2003, however, in part because of rising sea level. After also losing a high court case, the city government modified the project. Last year, the city began the process of creating a 27,000-hectare filled area, 30 kilometers long by 1.5 kilometers wide.

Local fisherman say the project is damaging their livelihoods.

Before the Waterfront City plan, developers had already destroyed some of the area's mangrove swamps that are home to fish and other sea creatures and provide protection from tidal surges. But the situation has worsened since the city government began the landfilling work, locals say.

"It's hard to catch fish now," said Ibnu, 63, a local fisherman. "We're working in a smaller area and there is more waste from those fancy buildings."

Ibnu said he now earns less than 2 dollars a day on average, compared to 5 dollars a day in the 1990s.

The land development has also affected the water supply. Jakarta's high-rise buildings have overused ground water and Jakarta has sunk 12 centimetres a year since 2007, worsening the city's flooding problems.

Sea level rise and flooding mean seawater has inundated the city's ground water, turning it increasingly saline. Ibnu and other locals must now buy fresh water from a local water trader, pushing up their cost of living.

COST OF MOVING

Faced with rising costs to the environment and livelihoods, Indonesia now needs to move urgently to transfer its administrative capital, Keraf believes, so the Jakarta city government can have space to start fixing the city's problems and begin focusing on climate adaptation.

"Climate change is happening and they can't think only about economic benefit," Keraf said. "There has to be an academic study into what is the best kind of adaptation after we move the capital."

The cost of moving the capital to Kalimantan is estimated at 50 to 100 trillion Indonesian rupiahs ($50 to $100 billion), according to Jehan Siregar, a lecturer in urban planning at Indonesia's Institute of Technology of Bandung.

He is part of a group of independent experts - called "Indonesian Vision 2033 Team" - who are analysing the capital's proposed relocation.

The group draws its name from the year that Indonesia will emerge as a developed nation if the government continues its current development plan for the country, according to the group.

The group believes moving the administrative capital could happen in stages over the next 10 years, financed by the national budget. Siregar estimates 400,000 government employees and staff would move, or up to a million people if their families are included.

"It will be great investment," he predicted.

Veby Mega Indah is a freelance journalist in Jakarta, Indonesia, who specializes in environmental and climate change issues.