East Flood Canal to have bicycle tracks

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 01/16/2010 8:46 PM

The East Flood Canal is soon to emerge as the most popular and safest place for bikers to ride in Jakarta.

Pitoyo Subandrio, head of Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Bureau at the Ministry of Public Works, said Saturday a bicycle track would be built along each side of the canal, which stretches between Kebon Nanas in East Jakarta and Marunda Beach in North Jakarta.

The left track between Kebon Nanas and Marunda covers 23 kilometers, while the opposite track covers 22 kilometers.

“We are planting trees along the tracks to make them convenient to bikers. I believe the canal will be the most popular route,” Pitoyo was quoted by kompas.com.

The government will build barb wire fences along the canal to keep people from dumping garbage into the flood control facility.

Jakarta to revamp Manggarai sluice gates

Triwik Kurniasari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 01/27/2009 1:27 PM  

The city administration plans to build one more gate at South Jakarta's Manggarai sluice gates to regulate the water flow better. 

"The new gate would be installed next to the existing ones, requiring the government to acquire some land plots," Pitoyo Subandrio, head of the Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Bureau at the Public Works Ministry, said on Saturday. 

"The new gate will reduce flooding because the water will run more smoothly than before." 

Pitoyo said the space for the gates, which were built in the 1920s by the Dutch government, would be widened by a dozen meters. 

The width of a gate is about six meters, excluding the pillars. 

Included in the Manggarai revamp is the clearing of the areas along the Ciliwung River, from the Casablanca bridge to the Manggarai sluice gate. 

Flood management expert Jan Jaap Brinkman from the Netherlands Water Research Institute (Deltares) confirmed the urgency of an additional gate in Manggarai. 

"The Manggarai gates need to be improved because they are too small. At this moment it is two gates, but it needs to be three gates," Brinkman, who is also the team leader of Flood Hazarding Mapping 2 at the Public Works Ministry, said. 

Brinkman was speaking after the signing of an agreement between Indonesia and the Netherlands in the fields of meteorology, water management, climate change and early warning systems. 

The administration is currently running flood mitigation projects in anticipation of the rainy season. 

It is now dredging 12 waterways across the city, including in Pademangan River and Mati canal (in North Jakarta), Cakung River (East Jakarta) and Grogol in West Jakarta. 

The Rp 23 billion (US$2.04 million) project is set to dredge 243,322 cubic meters of garbage out of the canals. The canals range from 467 meters to 3,533 meters long. 

The administration is also working on the East Flood Canal project, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The canal will be the primary flood control mechanism for East and North Jakarta. 

The 23.5-kilometer East Flood Canal will stretch across 11 subdistricts in East Jakarta and two subdistricts in North Jakarta. 

PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol Tbk, developer of the Ancol recreational area, is building another five submersible water pumps at its site in anticipation of floods in February. 

"We are building three new water pumps in West Ancol and two more in East Ancol to add to the existing 62 pumps; we hope they will be finished by February," Nurvita Sari, the developer's manager of property maintenance, said. 

The new and existing pumps, each able to pump 30 cubic meters of water per minute, will drain water from households in Ancol to the Ancol River. 

"After the water reaches Ancol River, it's the city's public works agency's responsibility to channel the water to Pluit and Sunter dams," she said. 

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), said that in February the sea level would rise 1.2 meters above normal levels due to a high tide, with the possibility of heavy downpours. 

YJ Harwanto, the developer's general manager of its corporate plan, said they were also raising the wave breakers, adding night shifts to watch over the water level and setting up an information board about the sea level. (fmb)

Dutch-made floating bulldozers to dredge city canals

The Jakarta Post | Fri, 11/14/2008 8:49 PM  |  Jakarta 

The city administration plans to dredge two urban waterways using equipment from the Netherlands to mitigate flooding in the city. 

Peter Vroege, team leader from the Jakarta Flood Management Pilot Dredging Project, said the equipment would be dispatched in two narrow and shallow waterways, the Mati and Pademangan canals in North Jakarta. 

He said the dredging machines, dubbed floating bulldozers, would dredge the waterways for three months, from Nov. 17 to February. 

"Before we hand over the equipment to the city, we will train public works officials so they are able to operate the equipment on other waterways," he said. 

The equipment is valued at 700,000 euros (US$890,000).

RI to get $2b in loans from World Bank for development

The Jakarta Post, Sat, 05/03/2008 11:14 AM  

The World Bank will lend US$2 billion for the country's development programs this year, the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) announced Thursday.

The government could receive even more loans than those previously promised, according to Bappenas director for international financing Dewo Broto Joko Putranto.

"The (additional) loans can be included as loans allocated for 2009," said Dewo, as quoted by Antara.

The board will wait until it learns the exact amount needed to plug this year's state budget deficit before determining how much to propose the World Bank allocate.

World Bank spokesman Randy Salim said the $2 billion in loans would be divided into program loans and project loans.

"About $1.2 billion of the loans will be spent on programs related to climate change, education and infrastructure policy development," Salim told The Jakarta Post.

"On top of this amount, there is another $400 million in programs related to poverty alleviation."

The remaining $400 million, he said, would go toward developing roads, dams and flood-control projects and improving tax administration.

"Indonesia and the World Bank are also negotiating $300-$400 million in additional loans for infrastructure development," Salim said.

This month the World Bank will release its "Infrastructure Development Policy Loan", in which some $200 million will be channeled to support infrastructure improvement in Indonesia.

In a related development, the director general for state debt management, Rahmat Waluyanto, said the government would get an additional $2.9 billion in program loans this year, as reported by Antara.

Of this amount, $1.1 billion would come from the Asian Development Bank and $500-$600 million from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

Waluyanto said part of the JBIC loan would be spent on programs related to climate change.

"About $1.2 billion worth of the loans will be used to plug the state budget deficit this year," Waluyanto said. (JP/rff)

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'Canal construction almost done'

The Jakarta Post, Jakartac

The land acquisition process for the long-awaited East Flood Canal project is almost complete, despite ongoing disputes that have complicated the process, East Jakarta Mayor Koesnan Abdul Halim said.

"I am positive that if everything goes well, the construction of the canal will be completed this year," he told reporters Friday.

The East Flood Canal -- which will be 23.5 kilometers long and 100 meters wide -- is one way the administration plans to deal with annual floods in the capital.

The project was initially commenced in 1987 and was scheduled to be finished by 2007, but numerous delays and budget constraints had many authorities estimating the project would not be completed until 2009.

Between late 2006 and the end of 2007, more than 80 percent of the 18.3 hectares of land needed for the project was acquired by the city administration, according to data provided by the East Jakarta municipality office.

Koesnan said only 15 percent more land would be acquired this year.

However, the head of Indonesia's Forum for the Environment (Walhi), Selamet Daroyni doubted the credibility of the administration's statement.

"I personally don't believe it. They have probably only acquired 30 percent of what they need at the most," he said.

Selamet said many land disputes related to the acquisition process were still being settled in court, while many former residents were still waiting to receive payment for their land.

"I don't think the canal will see the light of day this year," Selamet said.

The administration has been involved in extensive legal disputes with land owners. According to city regulations, it is mandatory for land owners to willingly give up their land in such situations or else face sanctions.

Koesnan said he had ordered his staff to speed up the land acquisition process and the settlement of land disputes.

The East Flood Canal -- which will cut through several of the 13 rivers flowing through Jakarta towards the sea -- is expected to decrease flooding in the city by 80 percent.

It will pass through some 11 neighborhood units in East Jakarta and two in North Jakarta.

Floods have increased in size and frequency in Jakarta throughout the past decade, with large floods hitting the capital in 2002 and 2007. These floods claimed several lives and caused trillions of rupiah in damage.(anw)

Flood solutions: Both big and small

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The idea that Jakarta will be flooded by 2050 seems to have taken hold in the media. Those who support it are scientists, green activists and politicians. Most of them believe climate change will raise sea levels, and, compounded by the sinking of Jakarta's land, speed the pace of flooding.

Whether or not the city sinks below the sea by 2050, floods have hit the capital annually and they strike with greater severity once every few years. Severe floods have become more frequent. At first the interval was 17 years, from 1979 to 1996; another struck six years later in 2002; another five years later in 2007.

Experts have said the trend will likely continue and the interval will keep shrinking unless the city does something to mitigate floods.

They also say the underlying cause of the floods is Jakarta's damaged environment. First, Jakarta's rivers are severely polluted. They are strangled both by garbage and by the construction of housing on their banks. Second, Jakarta's water catchment areas are dwindling due to unchecked urban development, which has left only 8 percent of the capital green. Third, overexploitation of groundwater and again, urban development, have hastened the sinking of Jakarta's land. The city is dropping at an average of 8 centimeters per year, according to one estimate -- faster than the rising sea level estimated at .57 centimeters.

What has the administration done about floods in the past year?

Governor Fauzi Bowo has included flood mitigation in his 100-day program. Weeks after he was elected governor, the rainy season arrived. And it's business as usual for many people.

Main streets in the capital are still inundated after heavy downpours. The drainage apparently does not work very well. Regularly flooded areas are flooding, just as they have in the past.

Meanwhile, the garbage is still heaped in mountains in Jakarta's rivers; efforts to scoop it out have been ineffective. Apparently, the garbage just keeps coming. A man who helped the city clean the Manggarai sluice gate said to the press that his job was neverending, due to the "super" amount of garbage.

The city administration's efforts so far have involved dredging rivers and evicting riverbank people every year -- a step that requires much energy and money with questionable results. The city has also repeatedly fixed and added pumps to move floodwater from the city to the sea or rivers.

Those measures are necessary, but they are like trying to cover a hole in a deflating tire with tape. The hole just gets bigger and costs more to repair.

Deputy Governor Prijanto said the funding to revitalize rivers was not enough. Prijanto complained that Jakarta had only Rp 270 billion (US$30 million) to mitigate floods, while it needed Rp 1.2 trillion.

As much as Jakarta's rivers need dredging, as many hydrologists and public works experts always say, they will constantly need large expenditures if the city does not come up with more lasting solutions, such as improving waste management.

The administration's long-term solutions so far involve big projects. The most famous one is the construction of the East Flood Canal, which has been halted since the Dutch colonial administration. It is now being hampered by land disputes. Fauzi has stated that he will finish acquiring land for the canal by the end of his 100-day program on Jan. 15.

Other projects are the revitalization of water reservoirs throughout the city and the construction of a large dam upstream on the Ciliwung.

A new proposal came up at the end of former Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso's administration. The city considered building a multi-purpose tunnel aimed at solving water shortages and sanitation problems as well as floods.

Early estimates said the project, which is still undergoing a feasibility study, would cost Rp 4.37 trillion. However, later projections put the price tag at four times that amount. There has been no further news about this plan. Reports have shown that for Jakarta, maintaining big projects is often problematic. Lack of trained human resources and money are often the excuse for equipment rotting away.

All of these projects might help mitigate Jakarta's floods. But they are all big undertakings requiring large amounts of money right from the feasibility study all the way through to maintenance. They would also take a large investment of human resources.

In addition to such big projects, the city should seek more grassroots solutions involving residents and the business sector, especially developers. Reports from across the world have shown that participatory projects are more effective and sustainable. They cost less but they take a longer and more continuous effort, which is why they are less popular with Jakarta administrations.

A campaign aimed at domestic waste management seems increasingly necessary, because households produce more than 50 percent of the city's garbage. Households also contribute a lot to the garbage clogging the rivers.

The city has a 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) campaign. So far, however, only 20 subdistricts out of hundreds have applied the 3R system. The city's promotional efforts have slacked.

Budirama Natakusumah, the head of Environmental Management Board (BPLHD), said his office did not plan to continue or revive the 3R campaign. However, his board has launched another campaign concerning waste and water catchment areas. It revives the idea of absorption wells throughout the city. Households can make biopore holes to help absorb floodwater while revitalizing the groundwater supply.

The biopore idea and efforts to get developers to install absorption wells have not proved very popular, however, perhaps because of the novelty of the idea.

Tackling floods should not be the responsibility of the city administration alone. Millions of residents, as well as the business sector, should help contribute to mitigation. Concerted efforts should be made because floods affect everybody in the city.

Thus, to flood or not to flood is not exactly the question. The city is flooded anyway and everybody should do something.

Let's manage garbage to combat flooding

Enri Damanhuri, Bandung, The Jakarta Post

A major flood threatens Jakarta. At least that is what was implied by the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG), which predicted that a high tide of up to 2.2 meters will affect northern Jakarta within the next few weeks, with the worst affected areas expected to be Penjaringan and Pluit. High levels of precipitation could also cause floods of up to half a meter deep in Cawang, Cakung, Jatinegara, Pancoran and Rawa Jati (Kompas, Dec. 5).

This is concerning, at least for us Jakartans and other residents of coastal areas. One problem that has not yet been solved is how to manage our garbage to avoid flooding. Now we have to add high tides to the list of threats.

The easiest answer to the question as to what causes the floods nowadays is the dramatic impact of global warming affecting all parts of the world. The floods are caused by bad weather and storms, and the melting ice is affecting the flow of water, leading to deluges.

However, we may have forgotten another reason that needs to be addressed: the intensive coastal reclamation work in North Jakarta was one of the cause of the floods from Ancol to Kapuk Naga at the end of November.

We may wonder about the floods in the U.S. or UK due to Hurricane Katrina or the heavy rains that caused the big rivers of Europe to overflow. Countries that are well-developed in terms of surface water management, through well-prepared drainage systems, pumps and control dams, in addition to proper waste management, where it is rare to find garbage plugging up the system, still have to deal with the problem.

Surely the rising waters will wreak havoc in developing countries, that are still only introducing such technology, as in Indonesia.

Floods do not just transport water. They contain bacteria, germs and domestic waste. It's no secret that the floodwaters also contain dangerous substances, such as hazardous chemical waste.

We face many problems in handling floods in Jakarta: from preventing the floods and reducing their impacts, to appraising and repairing the damage after the floods so as to prevent them from happening again.

There needs to be legal consequences for those who cause losses and causalities, whether intentionally or otherwise. The Environmental Management Law (No. 23/1997), which makes pollution a criminal offense, needs to be used as a point of reference by the authorities so as to discourage those who do not respect the environment and contribute to its destruction by either purposely mismanaging or carelessly managing waste.

When faced with flooding, people are normally most concerned about saving themselves and their material and productive assets. But what about the dangerous waste that can pollute the water and leech into the ground? This is especially worrying given the number of both large and small industries located in north Jakarta.

There needs to be strict law enforcement by the environmental authorities and related institutions to control how industrial waste is managed so as to avoid people falling sick or dying because they come into contact with dangerous chemicals during the floods.

The stakeholders, all of us, need to take a stand to reduce the impact of improper waste management, and the international forum on climate change in Bali is the perfect opportunity for Indonesia to take action and think about how improper waste management, domestic and industrial, has contributed to polluting our environment.

In order to affect a change in mentality and behavior among the Indonesian people, routine and ongoing socialization of good environmental practices and strict law enforcement of environmental regulations are necessary. The government, as one of the main stakeholders, needs to fulfill its role as the main agent of change by widely distributing information to the public and corporations about the importance of proper waste management, especially for industry-generated hazardous waste.

Let us not forget that waste management, especially urban waste that consists mainly of organic carbon substances, is a significant contributor to greenhouse emissions, especially since waste management systems in Indonesian landfills (TPAs) create methane gases that are improperly managed.

It is commonly known that the greenhouse effect of methane gas is 21 times worse than that of CO2. Of course, this does not mean that we have to blindly apply the values or emission factors provided by experts from developed countries. It requires systematic mapping to explain how proper waste management can serve as one of the important contributors to the effort to reduce greenhouse emissions in Indonesia.

From a management aspect, a program to reduce greenhouse emissions needs to start with the basics; the implementation of the 3-Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). This program can be socialized among garbage and industrial waste generators through discussion panels to formulate rules of conduct involving all relevant parties.

At least there will be a symbiosis of mutualism; both horizontally and vertically. More importantly, municipalities and industry players need to start managing their waste properly. When they realize that the hazardous waste generated by companies in their areas requires professional handling, according to the environmental rules and regulations, they will come to realize that they need to delegate this task to professional companies that specialize in industrial waste management.

As waste management is their core business, they will have the facilities and capabilities needed to ensure that the waste will be properly managed and will not damage the environment. To quote the old saying, "We should leave it to the experts." It's still not too late for this.

The writer is a professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). He can be reached at e_damanhuri@ftsl.itb.c.id

Jakarta faces perils of warming, inaction

By Laurie Goering | Tribune foreign correspondent

December 9, 2007, Chicagotribune.com

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Thousands of climate change experts from throughout the world are gathering in Bali to start the politically tortuous process of turning new scientific evidence about the perils of climate change into policy to act on the problem.

To see the potential perils of inaction, they need not look far.

Indonesia's low-lying capital, Jakarta, has long suffered seasonal flooding. But climate change, combined with a failure by politicians to address factors contributing to flooding, means a fifth of the fast-growing Asian city of 9 million may be perpetually flooded by 2050, Indonesian officials believe.

Unless major, concerted action is taken, the international airport will be surrounded by water and accessible only by boat, and the city's densest slums will be submerged, as will some of its most exclusive luxury housing developments, said Rachmat Witoelar, Indonesia's environment minister, who opened the two-week climate meeting in Bali, an Indonesian island.

Witoelar envisions a future in which the richest Jakartans live in high-rise apartment buildings connected by boat and elevated highways to high-rise malls, factories and offices.

Where the legions of poor will live, no one is quite sure.

"Climate change here is happening now. Yesterday in fact," Witoelar said. "We're very vulnerable."

Just how vulnerable became evident in February, when record floodwaters swamped the city, killing 80 people and driving half a million from their homes.

What makes Jakarta's impending disaster particularly worrisome—and a potential lesson to other places confronted with climate change—is that officials of this city, which has a long history of corruption and public mismanagement, are doing very little to address it.

Lack of realistic policy and planning to address flooding increasingly appears to be as big a threat as climate change itself, and may ultimately leave Jakarta with just three options: Float, sink or move.

"If sea level rises and the intense rains come more, Jakarta will drown, and we will have to think of relocating the capital," said Andi Sudirman, a hydrologist who has spent 20 years coordinating a river monitoring station in the hills above Jakarta.

A study released this year by the International Institute for Environment and Development in London similarly suggests that protecting cities like Jakarta from rising sea and floodwaters might prove so expensive that relocating people—perhaps even whole cities—could be a better choice.

Forty percent of Jakarta, built on a vast flood plain divided by 13 rivers, lies below sea level. In the best of times, the ocean's waves are held back by a system of pumps and floodgates. In the rainy season, downpours regularly overwhelm the city's drainage system, flooding the streets and sending muddy water pouring over the banks of its rivers and canals.

More rain, mismanagement

Climate change is making things worse. Rainstorms in Jakarta and its watershed are growing more intense and erratic, making flooding more severe and harder to predict.

Jakarta residents have long kept a wary eye on rumbling gray skies during the rainy seasons, which start in December. But in February, no one was prepared for a rainstorm so intense it sent floodwaters surging over 60 percent of the city.

With too few shelters available, families slept under interstate bridges and on graves in the cemetery. Hospitals were overwhelmed with cases of diarrhea, respiratory infection and leptospirosis, a bacterial disease caused by exposure to water contaminated with animal urine. Phone service, power, roads and rail lines were cut for days. Financial losses were put at nearly a half-billion dollars.

Sutiyoso, the city's governor, an unpopular and unelected ex-general appointed to his job by former Indonesian dictator Suharto, dismissed criticism of the city's lack of flood preparations, calling the deluge a "natural phenomenon."

But The Jakarta Post, in a frank editorial, laid the blame for the February disaster directly on him and other city officials, calling it "simply unforgivable" for the governor to "leave citizens helpless."

Jakarta's growing flooding problems are largely the result of local government mismanagement, critics say. Trash and sediment clog rivers that are rarely dredged. Forests have been felled and reservoirs bulldozed in the city's watershed to make way for homes. Business owners and residents have illegally filled in parts of the city's rivers. And since the late 1990s the city has seen a construction boom, much of it on former wetlands.

The city's planning guidelines call for maintaining wetlands and green space, but such areas have shrunk from 26 percent of the city in 1985 to 9 percent today. All but 9 percent of the original forest in the hills above Jakarta, which once absorbed much of the runoff flooding the city, has been cut by developers, according to the national public works department.

The problem, nearly everyone admits, is widespread corruption among city and state officials and lack of enforcement of Jakarta's laws.

"Corruption is the root of all of this flooding," said Slamet Daryoni, the executive director of Wahli, an Indonesian environmental and social justice non-profit organization. "The Jakarta development model is not to minimize flooding but to maximize profits."

He points out a spot on the Krukut River in West Jakarta, where developers building an apartment complex have sunk a huge concrete wall two-thirds of the way out into the 30-foot-wide river, then tamped in dirt behind to enlarge their plot. The normally placid stream now races in a whitewater torrent through the bottleneck; just across the river, on lower ground, sits the city's main telephone switching complex.

Siswoko, a flood-control specialist and director general of water resources for the national Ministry of Public Works, shakes his head at such violations, which have somehow received legal permits.

"Even if we have the regulation, local government doesn't follow it," he said.

Developers aren't the only ones filling in Jakarta's rivers. In a city with few open dumps and little in the way of waste collection, 70 percent of residential trash ends up in rivers and canals, Daryoni said. The garbage, combined with sediment from upstream erosion, has blocked most of the city's drains and filled its once-deep rivers and canals.

No place else for trash

At a floodgate station in central Jakarta built nearly a century ago during Dutch colonial rule, workers each day use a mammoth excavator to claw garbage bags, old inner tubes, bits of broken bamboo and heaps of plastic grocery bags from a massive drift of refuse trapped against the floodgates.

On a normal day, workers pull out enough garbage to fill five 20-ton trucks, said Pardjono, the manager of the station; when the water flow rises, as many as 15 trucks are needed each day.

National and city officials have promised to ease the city's problem by pushing through a long-delayed new drainage canal and moving 71,000 slum dwellers away from the banks of Ciliwung, the city's largest river, in order to widen it.

But with land costs spectacularly high in Jakarta and more than 100,000 riverside families in need of new apartments elsewhere "we'll need 25 years to build them all," said H. Wishnu Subagio, head of public works for Jakarta. Buying land for the drainage canal will similarly be a challenge.

Agus Purnomo, a climate change specialist in Indonesia's Environment Ministry, predicts that within 40 years seafront North Jakarta—full of multimillion-dollar homes and middle-class districts—will be abandoned.

"The problem with climate change is it's very long term," he said. "You can mobilize for something sudden, like a tsunami. With climate change, the adaptation is gradual," he said.

Prijanto inspects city flood gates, rivers

JAKARTA (Jakarta Post): Deputy Governor Prijanto visited a number of flood gates and water reservoirs Friday to personally check the condition of rivers and availability of working pumps as the wet season approaches.

His first visit was to the Manggarai flood gate, South Jakarta, which helps control the flow of Ciliwung River.

The piles of garbage, logs and household waste that can usually be seen clogging the flood gate heading towards Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, had been dredged by the time the deputy governor arrived.

Prijanto received a report from an on-duty guard who said the river was routinely cleaned and the communication system was operational.

However, upon inspection of the flood gate that channels water towards Istiqlal Mosque, Central Jakarta, the deputy governor found piles of garbage blocking the flow of river water.

"I want this gate to be cleared by tomorrow morning," he told Suparman, the head of the water control and conservation division at the City Public Works agency. (Mustaqim Adamrah)

Paving the way to get plastic out of rivers

The Jakarta Post

The rainy season is back! Even though we've only had pre-dawn showers down here at the coast, there are telltale signs on the beach of the deluge in the hills: Plastic wrappers, bottles and rubber sandals are blending in with seaweed, bits of trees and blobs of bitumen. Water is the only reliable cleaning service around here, but she's got to deliver the junk somewhere.

Cleaning and waste disposal is not a sexy topic with local government (yet). This could change if voters demand the service, but for now local government prefer spending their budget on larger commissions, visible high profile projects involve procuring big things: The 16 billion rupiah seawall on our beach, for instance.

Actively trying to ignore the dance and sound intrusion of the three mechanical swans packing giant boulders that crunch and crackle into a sloping seawall, I hardly notice the debris left by the outgoing tide. Preoccupied with cloud formations and the glimmering horizon, our willful dogs tugging at their leash jerk me back to the present.

And onto a sharp shard. I've a hole in my footgiving the burning signs of an infection. As I write, I'm soaking it in warm brine to soften the thick skin before opening it up to clean and disinfect with 70% alcohol. There's a silver lining to this monsoon cloud. This column is due and I can't walk away from this desk for a while.

There are not enough landfills to accept the waste we produce. Rubbish collection is unreliable. In Bali, even municipal rubbish collection trucks resort to dumping into rivers. Up in the hills locals and businesses often dump their waste into ravines to get it out of sight. Once the rains start, this all gets flushed downhill. The debris regularly clogs drains and causes flooding, which is a nuisance to all, but most persist in their habits because of a perception that there is no alternative.

Rivers flow to the sea carrying a wealth of waste. A lot of it is recyclable. There must be an alternative, wouldn't you agree? Imagine yourself as a primary school student at a rural village in Bali sitting your end of year exams. Here is a question from previous years that touches on sanitation: "What is the correct method of disposing your plastic rubbish?"

The exam is multiple choice, so take a pick: (a) Throw it in the river, (b) Burn it, (c) Bury it, or (d) None of the above. Sorry, recycling hasn't quite made it to the school curriculum yet. Obviously we've got to find other options for `none of the above' but for the time being, if you want to ace that exam, the correct answer according to the marking schedule is (b) Burn it.

According to recent studies, plastics can remain as long as 4500 years in the environment.

Dry plastic burns beautifully like wax candles, but it's the carcinogenic dioxins, furans and styrene readily absorbed through lungs and skin I'm worried about.

Household burning of rubbish can increase the risk of heart disease, aggravate respiratory ailments such as asthma and emphysema, and cause rashes, nausea, or headaches. It can damage the nervous system, kidney or liver, and also has a detrimental effect to the reproductive and development systems.

I happen to be one of those hippies who refuse unnecessary plastic bags to the bemusement, amusement or utter confusion and blank disbelief of denizens of checkout counters. A ban on the use of plastic, however, is likely to be futile. Indonesia is too `democratic' -- for lack of a better word -- to be able to enforce such a rule.

The risks to health and safety through increased chances of damage or contamination would also be so great that it would be irresponsible to ban plastic without offering a feasible economic alternative.

As Indian Physicist S. S. Verma puts it, the crux of the issue is more "the judicious use and re-use of plastic".

It's early days of trials yet, but in an article titled "Roads from plastic waste" in India's The Tribune S.S. Verma boasts how roads made of bitumen mixed with plastic can carry heavier loads and can last at least twice as long as their bitumen-only cousins.

The trial plastic roads in India use mainly plastic carry-bags, disposable cups and polyethylene (PET) bottles that are collected from garbage dumps as ingredient material. Mixed with hot bitumen, the plastics melt to form an oily coat over the aggregate and the mixture is laid on the road surface like a normal tar road.

Research has found that shredded plastic waste can act as a strong binding agent for tar, making the asphalt last longer. These plastic roads withstand hotter temperatures on sunny days without melting.

Reducing the porosity of the road, the use of plastic could reduce water-damage to roads, saving money from road repairs. Verma estimates that each km of road with an average width requires over two tons of polyblend.

Wonderful: yet another use for plastic. We know the stuff is valuable, is it time to for a concerted effort to collect and reuse it?

Kadek Krishna Adidharma can be reached at kadek@adidharma.net

Rising Seas Threaten 21 Mega-Cities

Guardian United, Saturday October 20, 2007 7:31 PM

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Cities around the world are facing the danger of rising seas and other disasters related to climate change.

Of the 33 cities predicted to have at least 8 million people by 2015, at least 21 are highly vulnerable, says the Worldwatch Institute.

They include Dhaka in Bangladesh; Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro; Shanghai and Tianjin in China; Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt; Mumbai and Kolkata in India; Jakarta in Indonesia; Tokyo and Osaka-Kobe in Japan; Lagos in Nigeria; Karachi in Pakistan; Bangkok in Thailand, and New York and Los Angeles in the United States, according to studies by the United Nations and others.

More than one-tenth of the world's population, or 643 million people, live in low-lying areas at risk from climate change, say U.S. and European experts. Most imperiled, in descending order, are China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, Egypt, the U.S., Thailand and the Philippines.

Jakarta moves on deep-tunnel project

JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post) : Governor Sutiyoso briefed Vice President Jusuf Kalla Wednesday over the planned deep tunnel project aimed at resolving chronic water and transportation problems in the capital.

"If the government agrees with the project, we will start construction next year," he told reporters after the meeting.

He said that the 22-kilometer tunnel would also solve flooding in the capital.

"Seeing the many functions of the tunnel, we will push the central government so that the project can be realized," he said.

According to the project designed by the Jakarta Water Supply Regulatory Body, the tunnel, with a diameter of 12 meters, will be built 15 meters below the West Flood Canal from Jl. MT Haryono in East Jakarta to Muara Angke in West Jakarta.

The administration will then construct two levels of roads in the tunnel as well as waste water reservoirs.

Above the roads, the tunnel will be used as a utility duct.

Sutiyoso has briefed members of the House of Representatives and the City Council on the project.

Govt may provide cash for deep tunnel project

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The central government has agreed to help finance the multi purpose deep tunnel project (MPDT), pending a feasibility study, a state official said.

"The project is a good idea because it will overcome many problems in the city such as traffic congestion, water shortages, and poor sanitation," Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto told a press conference here Thursday after opening a seminar on the project.

He said the central government would not mind helping finance the project but it would first look at the result of a feasibility planned by the city administration this year. He suggested the feasibility study be paid for by the city administration.

"We will see whether the project is financially and technically feasible," he said.

The head of the Jakarta Water Regulatory Body, Achmad Lanti, said the body would need around US$2 million to conduct a feasibility study and to make the grand design for the project.

"It will take two years to finish the feasibility study and the design,"

"And if the project is not feasible, we will not make it happen," he said.

The 22-kilometer tunnel will be constructed 15 meters below the West Flood Canal project with entrances in Balekambang, East Jakarta, and Manggarai, South Jakarta, and exits in Tanah Abang and Roxy in Central Jakarta and at the airport in Cengkareng, Tangerang.

There will be two levels of roadway and waste water reservoirs in the tunnel with diameters of 12 meters. Above the roadways, the tunnel will be used as a utility duct.

It is estimated that the tunnel will generate around Rp 2.2 trillion ($241 million) each year from the operation of the roadway as well as waste water treatment.

Meanwhile, Governor Sutiyoso said that the multi purpose deep tunnel would be the answer to all the crucial problems faced by the capital.

"I hope this concept will attract domestic investors as well as foreign investors because this is a big project which cannot be financed by the city administration or the central government alone," he said.

The project was first proposed by the Jakarta Water Regulatory Body in February after severe flooding inundated much of the capital. In its initial proposal, it was estimated that the project would need Rp 4.37 trillion. However, more recent projections put the cost at four times that amount.

Deeper pockets needed to finance Deep Tunnel: Guv

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The project to build a 22-kilometer tunnel to solve Jakarta's chronic water and transportation problems will likely cost some Rp 16.3 trillion (US$1.8 billion), four times the budget proposed in February.

Governor Sutiyoso said Monday that 30 percent of investment for the project would come from the central government and the city's budget.

"I'm inviting the private sector to fund the project," he said.

Sutiyoso expressed optimism that the private sector would invest in the Jakarta Multi Purpose Deep Tunnel project, since they would stand to reap a large amount of revenue from the electricity, water and fertilizers produced in the tunnel.

It is estimated that the tunnel will generate around Rp 2.2 trillion each year from the operation of two levels of roadway and a waste water reservoir.

Waste water from the tunnel will be processed to become clean water in North Jakarta's Pluit dam to help meet the water requirements of up to 1.5 million residents.

The tunnel will also produce hydroelectricity and fertilizer from the wastewater process.

For around two weeks of high rainfall each year, the entire tunnel, including roadways, will turn into a massive duct for channeling rainwater.

According to the Jakarta Water Supply Regulatory Body, which initiated the project, the area above the roadways will be used as a utility tunnel.

The entire tunnel will be constructed 15 meters below the West Flood Canal project with entrances in Balekambang, East Jakarta and Manggarai, South Jakarta and exits in Tanah Abang, Roxy and the airport in Cengkareng, Tangerang.

"The project is a good alternative for Jakarta since land acquisition won't be necessary to bring the tunnel about," said Achmad Lanti, the head of the regulatory body.

Achmad said he hoped the tunnel would be finished by 2014, although he admitted such a projection was based on the smooth running of the project.

The city administration will hold an international seminar on the deep tunnel on May 24 to attract investors to fund the project.

The seminar will be attended by representatives from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and other international financial institutions.

Guv vows progress on city projects

The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA: Governor Sutiyoso has said he will focus on achieving progress on key infrastructure projects in the final months before his term expires in October.

"I will do my best to make way for the construction of big projects such as the East Flood Canal, the monorail, the Mass Rapid Transportation system (MRT) and low-cost apartment buildings," Sutiyoso told reporters in City Hall Monday.

He said that most of the projects had started so he hoped that his successor would be able to complete them.

For the monorail, he said he hoped there would not be any future problems with the its construction, since the government had issued a letter to guarantee any operation shortfalls for the project.

He said he hoped construction of the MRT would run smoothly after the government received a letter of guarantee from Japan.

Last year, Japan signed an engineering assistance agreement with the central government to develop the MRT and gave a one billion yen loan for the project.

When asked about infrastructure projects that have not yet been finished, Sutiyoso said he talked to several potential investors during his trip to the Middle East last week.

"I met with the president director of Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and he showed his interest in the deep tunnel project," he said.

The city administration is planning to build a deep tunnel reservoir system that will run 17 km along the West Flood Canal. --JP

Sutiyoso sure water taxi is a winner

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As Sutiyoso's time as governor draws to a close, the people around him are working against time to ensure his plan to establish an inland water transportation system gets off the ground by the middle of the year.

City transportation agency head Nurachman said Friday the water taxi's Ciliwung River route -- from Karet in Central Jakarta to Manggarai sluice gate in South Jakarta was a well-chosen pilot program to gauge the appeal of water-based transportation.

"We hope passengers can try out the 4.2-kilometer route as early as June," he told The Jakarta Post.

"The city public works agency is currently in the process of repairing the West Flood Canal, which intercepts the Ciliwung, to make way for the water taxi service."

The administration has so far built water taxi stops in Karet Belakang, Dukuh Atas and PD PAL Jaya subdistricts.

The administration also plans to construct riverbank stations, where passengers will be able to make ticket purchases.

The type of vessels that will be employed has yet to be announced.

Despite his deputy, Fauzi Bowo, challenging the suitability of the system given the fact that many of the city's rivers are silted up with mud and rubbish, Sutiyoso is convinced it's a good way to ease traffic congestion on city streets. He is determined to see the service offered before his term ends in July.

Ciliwung River is the largest of the 13 rivers that cut through the capital.

All 13 rivers are seriously polluted.

The Jakarta Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD) said the water taxi service could actually improve the state of the city's rivers.

"We would constantly be monitoring the water quality and would certainly make it a priority to get rid of the stench. We're also planning to landscape the banks so commuters can enjoy a nice view," said Ridwan Panjaitan, the head of air pollution control at the agency.

The water taxi service is part of the city's integrated MRT project, comprising also the busway, subway and monorail systems.

Sutiyoso's first project, the busway, was launched two years ago.

There are currently seven corridors linking a number of areas of the city. Another eight corridors are under construction.

The monorail, meanwhile, will comprise two lines -- the green line and the blue line -- and cost an estimated US$650 million.

The 14.3-kilometer green line will run through Central Jakarta and South Jakarta, from Jl. Rasuna Said and Jl. Gatot Subroto to the Sudirman business district, and then to Senayan, Jl. Pejompongan and back to Jl. Rasuna Said.

The blue line will link Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta to Roxy, West Jakarta.

Meanwhile, the planned subway would run from Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta, to Kota in West Jakarta.

It is expected to cost US$800 million.

House OKs funds for flood control programs

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives and the central government have agreed to fund a range of projects to provide long-term flood-protection for thousands of families.

The projects include the construction of dams, lakes and the East Flood Canal, as well as the revitalization of rivers.

"Funding has been allocated in the state budget for multiyear commitments until 2009," Akhmad Muqowam, who sits on House of Representatives Commission V for public works, said Monday during a hearing.

"High priority projects will be listed when budget adjustments are made mid this year."

For the East Flood Canal project, the central government -- through the Public Works Ministry -- has agreed to fund the canal's construction, while the city administration is responsible for the land acquisition process.

The project, which is scheduled for completion by 2010, requires a total investment of Rp 3.8 trillion. The canal will cut through Cipinang, Sunter and Cakung rivers.

The ministry has proposed the central government allocate Rp 2 trillion for construction work, with the Jakarta administration contributing the remaining Rp 1.8 trillion.

Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto said the construction itself needed Rp 2.5 trillion.

Governor Sutiyoso, who also attended the hearing Monday, said the administration was aiming to acquire all land for the project by the end of the year.

"We will focus on the East Flood Canal project, and hopefully the land acquisition process will be over before Jakarta has a new governor," said Sutiyoso who finishes his term in August.

As of today, only a 7.7-kilometer stretch of the 23.7-km canal has been completed.

For the construction of dams, including those located outside the city, the Jakarta administration will cooperate with West Java and Banten provinces.

More than 80 people died in last month's floods, which affected between 45-75 percent of the city. Sixty-five others died of flood-related illnesses, including leptospirosis, a disease spread by rats.

Besides the flood recovery projects, the city administration is also planning to relocate 71,000 families from riverbanks to low-cost apartments built by the Public Housing Ministry.

Public Housing Minister Muhammad Yusuf Asyari said the ministry would build 725 apartment blocks at a total cost of Rp 6.5 trillion. Each block could accommodate 100 families.

Flood canal plan years out of date experts say

Anissa S. Febrina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Building the East Flood Canal according to the current plan, which was drawn up about 80 years ago, would only heighten the threat of flooding in the city, experts say.

Speaking on Tuesday at a public discussion on spatial planning, Trisakti University hydrology expert Erwin Iskandar recommended the start of the canal be taken further south.

"Both of the flood canals were designed according to conditions in Batavia, or old Jakarta, which had a total area of 2,500 hectares," Erwin said.

"Now the city's area is 65,000 hectares, the master plan must be revised."

He said that by taking the start of the canal further south, where the land was higher, the flood risk in outer areas would be minimized.

Erwin said the existing West Flood Canal was only able to stop central areas of Jakarta from flooding because at the time of its construction the outer areas were not inhabited and therefore in less need of protection.

The West Canal Flood, designed by engineer Herman van Breen, was constructed in 1922 in response to the great flood in Batavia in 1918.

The canal cut through the Cideng, Krukut and Grogol rivers, channeling their water directly into the sea.

"Their main concern then was to keep people living in Weltevreden (now the Medan Merdeka area) and Menteng dry. Fortunately, the outer areas had not been inhabited," Erwin said.

As witnessed today, outer areas like Manggarai, South Jakarta, and Jatinegara, East Jakarta, were among the most severely affected in both the 2002 and 2007 floods.

He said a similar condition could be created in outer areas of the East Flood Canal, like Cipinang in East Jakarta, if the project were to be built to the current plan.

During last month's floods, 75 percent of the city was affected, almost four times the area affected in 2002.

For the city administration it is the perfect time to push forward with the canal plan.

The project, which is scheduled for completion by 2010, requires a Rp 4.124 trillion investment -- both for land acquisition and the construction of the stretch of the canal that would cut through the Cipinang, Sunter and Cakung rivers.

As of today, only a 7.7 km stretch of the 23.7-km canal has been completed.

The canal, which has an upstream depth of three meters and a downstream depth of seven m, is projected to accommodate more than 390 cubic meters of water per second.

Environmentalists have criticized the plan as shortsighted and suggested either building lakes or developing a deep tunnel reservoir.

During the discussion, Tarumanagara urban planning expert Kemal Taruc highlighted the need for the city administration to develop a land contour map to calculate average depths across the city in a hypothetical flood.

"The simulation is needed as a precaution. We could warn residents based on the estimated depths," Kemal said.

He added that previously urban planners and experts from the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) had offered to establish floodplain boundaries and flood depths through detailed analysis.

"Unfortunately, the administration does not even have a thing as simple as a land contour map."

Experts warn Jakarta Bay project may up flood risk

Adianto P Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The construction of the North Flood Canal in Jakarta could be one way of reducing the flood risk in the city.

But the ongoing land reclamation project -- which will modify a 32-kilometer stretch of the city's northern coastline, extending it seaward -- will render it ineffective, environmentalists warned Wednesday.

State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar said the reclamation of the seabed would obstruct the movement of water back toward the sea.

He suggested the Jakarta administration reconsider its decision to carry out its own environmental impact analysis for the project.

"The administration must involve the central government in the process because the project will also affect the environment in neighboring provinces."

The controversial reclamation project would add about 2,700 hectares to the city. The land would be designated for industrial parks, hotels, office buildings and upscale accommodation for up to 1.19 million residents.

Governor Sutiyoso, in his appearance on Metro TV during the flood early this month, said the reclamation project would be one way of preventing floods caused by high tides.

Forty percent of the city is situated below sea level.

"About 72 percent of the world's coastal cities have reclaimed part of their seabeds. It is an age-old issue. We will monitor the project all the way and stop it if the land reclamation is damaging the environment," Sutiyoso said.

An expert from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Atika Lubis, said the construction of infrastructure near the cost would increase the flood risk in the city.

"The reclamation project will, of course, jeopardize the success of the North Flood Canal. It will reduce the rate at which surface water reaches the sea, thus causing floods."

She said the administration needed to be aware of the slow permeability rate of the city's land.

"The reforestation of areas of North Jakarta, for example, will not contribute much to flood prevention efforts because clay does not hold water very well," she said.

"Therefore, the construction of apartments, hotels or other infrastructure along the coastline or in delta areas will further hold up the flow of water into the sea," she said.

Armi Susandi, a coordinator at the Indonesia Association of Geophysicists (HAGI), warned more areas of Jakarta would be prone to flooding in the future due to global warming.

"The water level in Jakarta Bay will rise by 57 millimeters a year, while the land will subside by 80 mm a year," he said.

Armi, who is also an ITB meteorologist, said many areas of Cilincing, Koja, Tanjung Priok, Pademangan and Penjaringan in North Jakarta would be under water by 2050.

"By our estimations, some 160 square kilometers of Jakarta will be swamped by 2050," he said.

Global warming, the gradual increase in the earth's surface temperature, is thought to be caused by human activity.

Meanwhile, ITB geologist Lambok Hutasoit said the presence of buildings higher than six stories in Central Jakarta had caused the land to sink by between 22 and 75 cm in two years.

"People are blaming land subsidence on the exploitation of groundwater. But it only comprises 17 percent of the problem," he said.

Lambok proposed the construction of giant groundwater tunnels to prevent floods in the rainy season and water shortages in the dry season.

"We can apply the underground tunnel system developed in Chicago, where a 200-km tunnel was built to store water," said Lambok, who is also an expert at the city's mining agency.