Indonesia: Jakarta sea wall an environmental disaster: Study

Corry Elyda, The Jakarta Post 7 Oct 15;

A study by the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry has revealed that the National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD) project, known as the Giant Sea Wall (GSW) or the Great Garuda, would have a massive environmental and social impact on the city, including the disappearance of islands and damage to the maritime ecosystem.

Taslim Arifin, a researcher at the Research and Development Center for Marine and Coastal Resources at the ministry, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that his team had conducted an ecological and physical oceanography survey last year to see how the construction of the GSW would affect the environment around Jakarta Bay. “The results showed that the wall would affect the sea currents outside the wall, so it could potentially erode the islands in the western part of the bay, including Onrust Island,” he said, adding that the island could eventually disappear.

Onrust, like other islands such as Kelor and Cipir, is a historical site and has been declared an archeological park.

Taslim said that apart from eroding the island, the GSW would also destroy natural habitats in the waters north of Jakarta, including coral reefs.

“More than 50 percent of our coral reef has been destroyed. However, it still has potential as Jakarta Bay is also a spawning area for various fish species,” he said.

He added that although Jakarta Bay was heavily polluted, fish could still be found. “Their conditionswould be greatly affected,” he said.

The NCICD, previously the Jakarta Coastal Defense Strategy (JCDS), was introduced by Dutch consulting firms to then governor Fauzi Bowo. It is a giant project that aims to mitigate tidal flooding amid a worsening problem of land subsidence.

According to the NCICD’s executive summary published in June on ncicd.com, the first phase of the project would be the construction of 15,614 meters of dike segments in Jakarta and West Java.

The second phase would be the construction of the outer sea wall in the western part of Jakarta Bay, scheduled for 2018 and targeted to be completed in 2025. The last phase of the project would be the construction of the outer sea wall in the eastern part of the bay in 2025.

Taslim said that the water inside the GSW would also become a problem. “As the water is trapped, the pollutants deposited by the 13 rivers in Jakarta would accumulate in one place,” he said.

He said the accumulation would cause eutrophication that would be fatal for the biota in the water as the oxygen concentration fell.

“The water inside the seawall would become a big pond of pollution. It would become worse if the city administration did not start to tackle the pollution in the rivers,” he said.

According to Taslim, the project would also require the city administration to relocate 24,000 fishermen who live along the coast.

In the executive summary, the NCICD cites environmental impacts like the loss of coastal habitats and the transition to fresh water and poor water quality in the large reservoir after closing the sea wall.

It says the impact has been evaluated in a strategic environmental assessment report. “In brief, the outcome is that the NCICD project does have an environmental impact [as with any large project], but that this is not at an unacceptable level.”

Issues to be taken into consideration include the fact that “the quality of the habitat in Jakarta Bay is already so poor [due to pollution] that losses would be limited.”

The NCICD says it does not formally include the equally controversial development of 17 islands by the city administration, although it proposes “a synergy” with the reclamation project.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti has been at odds with Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama over the planned reclamation and creation of the 17 islands.


Giant Sea Wall urgent to save sinking Jakarta: Consultant
Corry Elyda, The Jakarta Post 8 Oct 15;

A water management specialist from Dutch research institute Deltares has confirmed that the National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD) project, known as the Giant Sea Wall (GSW), will have an environmental impact, but says that land subsidence in Jakarta is a far greater threat and the wall is one of the solutions.

Jan Jaap Brinkman said on Wednesday that the project might affect the Thousand Islands as well as erosion patterns, coral reefs and biota.

However, Brinkman argued that the project was an urgent measure to protect four to five million people threatened by land subsidence that would see their current homes 4 to 9 meters below sea level.

“Everybody keeps forgetting and ignoring the land subsidence, this is the driving force,” he said.

Jakarta is sinking an average of 5 to 20 centimeters per year, with an average of about 7.5 cm per year.

Brinkman added that if the land subsidence continued like this, by the end of the century Jakarta would have sunk another 5 to 6 meters.

Brinkman said the “cheapest and easiest” solution to land subsidence is to stop groundwater extraction. Millions of households, offices, and industries rely on groundwater as the coverage of tap water is only about 60 percent.

“However, if the sinking does not stop, Jakarta has only two options to protect its people,” he said.

He went on to say that they comprised evacuating millions of people and buildings from northern Jakarta to higher ground or enclosing Jakarta Bay with a “good, very safe dike, good very large pumps and a very large lake to store the water: the giant sea wall”.

Recently, the Research and Development for Marine and Coastal Resources Department at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry showed that the giant sea wall would have large environmental and social costs, including the disappearance of islands and the damage of biota in the sea. The ministry’s study claimed that it would also destroy the biota in the water inside the wall because of eutrophication process from the pollution of Jakarta’s 13 rivers, and displace thousands of fishermen.

The study was conducted by more than a dozen researchers in 2014 by making a simulation of the GSW. The result was published as a book, Dinamika Teluk Jakarta; Analisis Prediksi Dampak Pembangunan Tanggul Laut Jakarta (The Dynamics of Jakarta Bay; Prediction Analysis of the effects of the Giant Sea Wall Construction), by IPB Press.

Separately, the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister’s assistant deputy for water resource infrastructure, Mohammad Zainal Fatah, said that he doubted GSW would cause great environmental damage, saying that it would instead have many positive effects.

“The project is urgent as North Jakarta is sinking,” he said.

Regarding the potential for eutrophication, Zaenal said the wall would not be designed like a big sewage pond.

“We will have a water treatment plant that can provide a raw water supply,” he said.

He added that the central government and the city administration were now speeding up construction plans of the liquid waste treatment system.

“We previously aimed to complete the project by 2050 but we are trying to finish it by 2022,” he said.

Separately, Jakarta Development Planning Board (Bappeda) Tuty Kusumawati said that the city administration and other entities would try to minimize the impact of the project on the fisherfolk.

“We will try to alter their profession from fisherfolk to fish farmers,” she said.