Population boom threatens Indonesia

Antara 8 Apr 11;

Medan, N Sumatra (ANTARA News) - Head of the National Population and Family Planning Coordination Board (BKKBN) Sugiri Syarief has again warned of a possible population explosion threat.

"A population explosion will possibly happen in Indonesia if the government fails to control the pace of growth" Sugiri said here on Friday.

He explained that the total of Indonesian population at present is 237.6 million with its growth rate of 1.49 percent and it has caused a lot of problems related to garbage, floods, and even traffic jams.

According to him, the problem could get even worse if the possible population explosion was not overcome.

"Not to mention the difficulty of access to clean water, air, and other climate change issues. Then we can imagine what happens if the population continues to grow to reach 500 million people," Sugiri said.

He said it was possible for the population to grow if the government failed to suppress the rate of population increase.

"In the past ten years the population has increased by 1.49 percent to 32.7 million to be equal to the number of population in Canada and more than that of Malaysia," he said.

Sugiri added that if the population growth remained at 1.49 percent then it was predicted that in 2045 the population would reach 450 million people.

Therefore he said the government and the BKKBN are at present making every effort to revitalize family planning program and population issue to control its growth.(*)

Editor: Heru