The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Sat, 06/23/2012
Despite the common perception that traffic congestion and flooding are the major challenges for the city’s leaders, Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said that the constant inflow of people from across the archipelago into the capital has become the major cause of problems currently choking the capital.
Fauzi, speaking at a City Council plenary to commemorate the city’s 485th anniversary on Friday, said that of all the challenges the city faced, constant migrant influxes had tilted the balance of population density and space availability.
“With a tendency toward horizontal development, almost 70 percent of available land in Jakarta has been filled with dense residential areas, offices and urban infrastructure,” Fauzi said in his speech.
Making matters worse, Fauzi said, was the scarcity of clean water as a result of an inadequate tap-water distribution network and massive extraction of ground water by residents, businesspeople and industry, leading to subsidence.
As the nation’s capital, Jakarta is not only home to the central government, but is also a center of economy, education and culture, as well as an international city where the embassies are located.
More than two-thirds of the nation’s money circulates within Jakarta, with the city contributing 16 percent of Indonesia’s gross domestic product (GDP).
City Population and Civil Registration Agency data shows that during the day, Jakarta is home to more than 12 million people, only half a million short of the 12.5 million population projected in the its 2010-2030 Spatial Planning bylaw.
According to the agency, Jakarta had a population of 10.1 million people as of Nov. 1, up from 9.6 million recorded during the 2010 national census. The current figure surpasses the city’s own projection for 2025, which was forecast to be 9.2 million.
The 2010 census recorded a total of 9.6 million people residing in Jakarta, a sharp increase from 8.4 million in 2000, with a growth rate of 1.4 percent per year. The 2010 population figure exceeded the 8.9 million mark predicted by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).
With its current population, Jakarta’s 662-square-kilometer area has a population density of 15,256 people per square kilometer.
The population of Greater Jakarta, which comprises Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi (Jabodetabek), reached 27.9 million according to the 2010 census, with a growth rate of 3.6 percent per annum during the 2000-2010 period.
That figure far exceeds the national annual population growth rate of 1.49 percent per year over the same period. Jabodetabek accounts for 11 percent of Indonesia’s population, up from 10 percent in the previous census conducted in 2000.
Fauzi lamented that although the city administration boasted a total of Rp 31.07 trillion in its budget last year, the largest compared to other provinces, the city still did not receive enough funding for its development.
City data recorded it received a total of Rp 648.51 billion from the central government last year but it had yet to receive a special allocation for the capital as mandated by the 2007 Law on the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta.
Also speaking at the council plenary, Djohermansyah Djohan, the director general of regional autonomy at the Home Ministry, admitted that the central government had yet to give the special allocation to the capital.
“A special allocation for the administration in the national budget is possible [according to existing regulations], but I think the city can survive on its own; it already has numerous revenue sources,” Djohermansyah said.
za 23 jun 2012 - 2:37