The Jakarta Post 3 Aug 17;
National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) head Bambang S. Brodjonegoro has said Java’s northern coastal area is facing a daunting threat, namely land subsidence.
“What I’ve seen is that the island’s northern coastal area is threatened [by subsidence]. We cannot hope for a magic wand or a god to prevent Java’s northern coastal area from sinking further,” said Bambang as quoted by kompas.com on Thursday. He was speaking during a national work meeting held by the Environment and Forestry Ministry in Jakarta.
Bambang believed the National Capital Integrated Coastal Development’s (NCICD) reclamation and giant seawall projects could be the answer to the problem.
“The government must make efforts to protect the people. But they themselves must be ready to embrace the changes,” said Bambang.
He said Java’s northern coastal area was different from the Maldives, an archipelagic country also threatened by land subsidence. He further said that without belittling the geographical challenges the Maldives was facing, it had a much smaller population than Java Island.
Bambang said Java’s northern coastal area had a huge population. Greater Jakarta, which is part of the area, has 20 million people, he added.
“Tangerang, Bekasi, Cikarang and Karawang are all located along the northern coast. If you’ve heard about the tidal flooding, it happens not only in Semarang but also in Pekalongan, Tegal and many more places,” he said. (ecn/ebf)
