Jakarta’s Green Policy Overview: Progress and Gaps

“The Big Durian”. While this witty nickname, alluding to the cosmopolitan and metropole nature of the beating megapolitan heart of our Republic carries a nice ring to it, a statement of our ambitious aspirations to make “Jayakarta” a true city of the world akin to the Big Apple, it is deeply ironic that “Batavia” is a closer cousin to Amsterdam than “New Amsterdam.” Understanding the truth of this matter- is crucial to understanding not only the problems faced by Jakarta themselves, but also in developing the most effective solutions to tackle them.

Though extensively settled prior by the native Javanese population beforehand, the construction of a trading outpost on the estuary of the Ciliwung river by Dutch traders of the United East India Company or VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) during the 1600s-1700s marks the true beginning of the Jakarta we know today, as a minor colonial outpost at the edge of the world vascularized by 13 rivers, which the Dutch expanded into an extensive series of canals which are still extant today, canals which they extensively utilized to transport their prized commodities. (Ricklefs) While Jakarta remains a major trading port into the modern day, the originally wet, swampy terrain so useful for transport and trade which originally brought it to prominence has become a double-edged sword, as it is now exceptionally vulnerable to flooding. These problems stem from the low, flat terrain of the Ciliwung’s estuary and a ground elevation close to sea level, as well as its geological conditions- being constructed atop land that was formerly a swampy estuary, land consisting mainly of soft sediment held together by rich and extensive groundwater deposits.

The extensive urbanization of Jakarta post-independence as well as the extensive population growth the city has seen, rising from approximately 1,452,000 souls in 1950 following the conclusion of our National Revolution to almost 11,634,000 souls in 2025- (MacroTrends) quite literally an almost 11-fold increase, has ensured that regions once considered fully separate satellite cities- Bekasi, Tangerang, Depok, and Bogor, have effectively merged with Jakarta itself to form the extensively urbanized Jabodetabek region, one of the largest urbanized areas in the world, stretching across almost 6,822 square kilometers of land. This, along with the Indonesian government’s industrial and economic policies which have historically been centered on the development of Java itself, to the chagrin of other regions, a phenomenon described as Java-centrism, has created tremendous geological and ecological strain on the city itself and its surrounding ecology.

This has resulted in the development of two major conditions affecting the city as it stands today. These conditions are more of umbrella terms, a Kantian schema of the myriad of tiny problems affecting Jakarta as a synthesis of the consequences of policy and the weight of history. These issues can be broken down into two; air and water.

It’s an unspoken fact of everyday life in Jakarta that the city faces an existential threat in the form of land subsidence; decades of unregulated groundwater extraction has caused the compaction and subsequent collapse of terrain, making Jakarta the fastest sinking city in the world. (NPR) This problem has arisen due to the fact that the state is only able to provide 40% of Jakarta with clean water. This phenomenon, occurring across an already extremely flat and level region coupled with rising sea levels has led to projections which predict that up to a third of Jakarta, including the entire northern city, could be submerged or waterlogged by 2050. (DW) In order to counteract this, in 2014 the government began construction of the 32km long Jakarta giant seawall, also known as the great garuda project, which is expected to finish construction by 2027. (BBC) This project also involves a number of prominent land reclamation projects, similar to those which resulted in the creation of Pantai Indah Kapuk, or PIK.

The construction of this seawall however has created numerous problems of its own, firstly the fact that the construction of such a seawall would effectively cut off the northern city from the sea- depriving thousands of fishermen of their livelihoods. (BBC) It has also been noted that in several of the regions where the sea wall has been completed, the water instead seeps out of the ground- effectively rendering the very existence of the wall moot. Locals also remain concerned as to the long-term structural feasibility of a concrete structure exposed to the corrosive effects of seawater. The most effective solutions proposed so far involve tackling the root of the problem itself; the government’s inability to supply the public with fresh and clean water, as well as halting the unregulated extraction of groundwater, allowing Jakarta’s underground reservoirs to replenish themselves and prevent further subsidence. Attempts were made during the Baswedan administration to introduce the “Biopori” system of drilling meter-deep boreholes to reintroduce water into the ground; these measures were criticized as superficial due to both the scale and depth of groundwater extraction, which may occur at tens to hundreds of meters deep. (BBC)

Naturally of course the question is then raised as to how the Indonesian government is unable to supply the people of Jakarta with enough clean water- this is due to the extensive industrialization of the Jabodetabek region, which is home not only to the Bogasari flour mill, the largest flour mill in the world- (Gilbert, Rogers) but also a thriving textile industry, notorious for polluting the 13 rivers flowing through the city with a variety of dyes and chemicals in addition to the already extensive plastic waste that is regularly dumped into them. (Undark) A measure taken to address the issue of plastic waste in the city was proposed during the administration of former governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahja Purnama in the form of the “pasukan oranye”- a unit of sanitation workers known for their distinct orange uniforms, formally known as the Penanganan Prasarana dan Sarana Umum, which has faced controversy in recent years due to its declining performance during the Baswedan administration. (CNN)

Jakarta is also known as one of Asia’s most polluted cities due to its extensive car-centric infrastructure; no measures whatsoever have been taken to alleviate this issue, and current projections estimate that the air quality of the city will continue to worsen. (Greenpeace) The continued construction of coal-fired power plants and the Baswedan administration’s mixed signaling on the state of the city’s air will no doubt exacerbate this continuously worsening situation. (Mongabay)

The Indonesian government’s relative silence and continued refusal to adopt or implement concrete solutions regarding both the extensive pollution faced by the region as well as the inherent issues created by the city’s geography leaves the city’s future in a fog of uncertainty. It is increasingly clear that a depth of radical, direct and widespread measures must be taken in order to address the environmental situation in Jakarta. Further raising concerns is the Indonesian government’s decision to further leave the city’s future an open question with the construction of the Nusantara capital project in Borneo; a measure that has been explicitly attributed as a solution to the rapidly deteriorating condition of Jakarta, and the seeming ineffectiveness of the sea wall project- a “solution” that addresses the issue of the continuity of the Indonesian seat of government, but fails to address the dire reality faced by the people currently living in the extant capital. (ClimaTalk)

Works Cited

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