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Problems and Challenges in jakarta’s urban Management (2001)

Problems and Challenges in jakarta’s urban Management: How the populations, land spaces, and infrastructures must be managed for the better life in jakarta

by Teguh Kurniawan

Background

When we are talking about city and its management, at least there are three important aspects in my opinion that we should not forget. They are populations, land spaces, and infrastructures. These three aspects are the most crucial aspects that we must deal and consider when we manage a city. Without considering these aspects in managing city will lead us to a major disasters in the future for the city itself and the existence of its inhabitants. The huge numbers of population comparing with the availability of land spaces dispose to accommodate them and the availability of the infrastructures for life activities support must be managed well through comprehensive and careful planning. This planning activity must also involved all the stakeholders belong to the city or at least the planning body should have adequate information and knowledge about the real conditions of the people, the ecology or the environment condition, and the needed for specific action or policy in certain locations at their city. Therefore they could develop the precise plan for the glory of their city in the future.

By doing this approach could repeatedly direct for the achievement of the common objectives of the existence of the city government all over the world, which is related to the wealth of its inhabitants that is how to made city as the better living place for their inhabitants and others living things around them.

This small paper try to identify the situation happened in regards with the three-aspect mention above in the City of Jakarta. By this information’s available could give better insight for the Jakarta Provincial Government (JPG) in managing their city toward sustainable development.

The paper only discusses the condition in the City of Jakarta or JPG not the Jakarta Metropolitan Areas (JMA). The two terms have different meaning related to the administrative boundaries they had. The first term, City of Jakarta is the Capital City of the Republic of Indonesia, which has status as a Special Province (Capital city) with its autonomous authority. The current law that governed status of the City of Jakarta is the Law 34/1999. The second term is refer to the City of Jakarta and its surrounding regions which known as “Jabotabek Areas” that consists of Jakarta itself, Bogor (both municipal and regency), Tangerang (both municipal and regency), Bekasi (both municipal and regency) plus one other region Depok (a municipal that laid down between Jakarta and regency of Bogor). Both municipal and regency of Bogor, municipal and regency of Bekasi, and municipal of Depok are belongs to the West Java Province, while both municipal and regency of Tangerang belongs to Banten Province, it is a new Province establish just several months ago.

The Jakarta itself is divided into five administrative municipalities (North Jakarta, Central Jakarta, South Jakarta, West Jakarta, East Jakarta) and once administrative regency only (Thousand Archipelago). Different with other municipalities and regencies in Indonesia, the municipalities and regency in Jakarta has not autonomous authority. They only have status as administrative not autonomous regions. It mean that they cannot make a political decision because of they do not have the local representative bodies (DPRD). The Mayor (Walikota) and Head of Regency (Bupati) are only executing policies made by the Governor because of according to the law 34/1999 the political decisions are doing in the provincial level only, because the autonomous status for Jakarta’s regions is in the provincial level. That’s why make Jakarta is the Special Province, not only because of role of Jakarta as a Capital City but also because of the different system of government applied compare to the other provinces and regions. The Law 22/1999 about Local Government except for the Special Province of Aceh governs the other regions in Indonesia.


Why these three aspects and not the other aspects?

In its publication “Sustainable Development in Asia”, 2000, Asian Development Bank (ADB) state and argue that three determinants factors of sustainable development in Asia are: consumption, production, and distribution. Consumption beyond reasonable limits set by nature; production characterized by gross inefficiencies in use of water, energy, and minerals; and grossly inequitable distribution of resources—all perpetuate poverty and stop sustainable development. Sustainable development demands pro-poor economic growth, social development, and good governance, and is therefore tantamount to poverty reduction.

If we refer to the above statement from ADB and linked with the sustainable urban management approach, we will agree that populations, land spaces, and infrastructures are the most important elements for achieving sustainable city.

Consumption, production, and distribution are the core concept in economic as state by Samuelson and Nordhaus (1998) that economics is the study of how societies use scarce resources to produce valuable commodities and distribute them among different people. By studying and understanding economics and the environment, we could understand how to manage city toward sustainable city and realized that economics matter will guided us to the importance of the populations, land spaces, and infrastructures for the sustainable urban approach.

Population is very important subject when we are dealing with consumption, production, and distribution. It become crucial factor since the supply and demand in the market is determined by the amounts of people needing for some goods and services that can produce through economy activities. When the community trying to produce some goods and services, they will face with the problem of scarcity of the resources available to producing some goods and services. And the resources could appear as the land spaces available in the city. We are talking here about not only the administrative boundaries of the city, but also the capacity of the nature within the city in accommodating for the economic activities and other activities. The nature has a limitation when they are using for production activities. We should remember that there are some natural resources that cannot be renewable. Therefore it is important to consider the land spaces in term of resources availability in the city when it comes to sustainable urban management. In the process of consumption, production, and distribution in the city, infrastructures also play an important role. It is because the infrastructures are very needed in the process of consumption, production, and distribution. We can imagine what will happen if the infrastructures of the city is in a bad condition that cause a trouble in producing, delivering, and consuming goods and services.

Of course the different situation could appear in many ways in the different city that can caused the different point of view of people in determining the most important factors in their city when it comes to urban management. But once again in my point of view, when we are dealing with sustainable urban management especially in Jakarta, the three elements: populations, land space, and infrastructures will playing important roles and need to prioritized in Jakarta’s Urban Management. How these three elements become important for Jakarta? The answers for the question will you find after you read the follow sections.


City Profile of Jakarta: the latest condition exists in Jakarta today

In order to obtain thoughtful analysis why the populations, land spaces, and infrastructures should become priority in Jakarta’s Urban Management, I will try to present some information about the three aspects. These information collected from the website of Regional Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal). The information will be shown in the table format for every aspect and divided according to regions in Jakarta. Please note that the Regency of Thousand Island is the new region. Therefore the information shown here for this region is included in the section of Municipality of North Jakarta.

The information is collected and shown spatially because in my opinion it’s the best way for doing so. When you talking about populations, land spaces, and infrastructure, then you will need to analyze them region per region and must use the spatial approach. In the end of every aspect, I will try to give briefly analyze about the condition
.

Population

According to the Jakarta’s Central Statistic Agency that quoted by the Regional Environmental Impact Management Agency, in 1999 Jakarta has inhabitants of 9,604,900 peoples within its 661.52 square kilometer areas, within this figure the population density about 14,519 peoples per square kilometer. If the figure is break down into region, we have following information.

Table 1
Area, Population, and Density of Jakarta in 1999



Source: Regional Environment Impact Agency (www.dki.go.id/bapedalda)
The tabulation is reprocess by the author

From the table 1 above, we can find that according to the size of area, the East Jakarta is the largest area with 187.73 square kilometer while the Central Jakarta is the smallest area with 47.9 square kilometer. The same ranking is applied for the population. But according to the density, the most populated region is West Jakarta with 18,897 people per square kilometer following by the Central Jakarta with 18,376 people per square kilometer.

With these figures of density, if we refer to the Wackernagel et al. (1997) and also Meadows (1995) the density in Jakarta is very critic and tends to destructive for Sustainable Development. According to Meadows, the ideal population density for sustainable development is below 50 people per hectare, while it will lead to critical if the population density around 100 – 150 people per hectare and destructive for the sustainable development if the population density above 200 people per hectare.

If we look to the table 1 above, than we will find that the rate of population density in Jakarta’s regions is laid between 110 –189 people per hectare. This condition is very danger for the sustainable urban development for Jakarta. We should remember that in the future there is possibility for increasing amount of the population in Jakarta. Even as projected by the Central Statistic Bureau, in 2000 – 2005 the growth rate of population in Jakarta will be around 1.16 %. The figure according to Meadows is also very critic for the sustainable development. Therefore the Jakarta Provincial Government should pay much their attention to do the best efforts they could do in handling the growth of population. They are also need to pay attention how to provide better services for the current population based on the characteristic of every region.

Land Spaces

The huge and uncontrolled population in Jakarta if do not have attention from government will lead to the degradation of the environment. This could happen by the fact that the increasing population will also increase the amount of space needed for the human activities. And we know that when doing their activity, sometimes people tend to ignore the carrying capacity of the environment in providing services.

The term of land spaces is refer to the availability of the resources in Jakarta that can be used to produced goods and services. The total areas of Jakarta could show us the limitation of land surface of the earth that can be used. From the information collected we have some following figures.

Table 2
Area, population, and Main Land Use in Jakarta 1999



Source: Jakarta in Figures 1999, Jakarta’s Central Statistic Agency
The tabulation is reprocess by the author

From the figures in the table 2, we can find that according to the main land use in Jakarta the settlement is very dominant with 43,230 hectare or 65,35 % of the total area while the park is only 1,328 hectare or just 2 % of the total area.

This figures however could give us description how Jakarta is lack of green belt or open space for its people. Sustainable urban management is how to act of balancing economic, social, and environmental benefits through implementation of development policies, programs, and projects that will not enhance one type of benefit at the cost of others. Based on the figures in table 2, in general we can draw conclusion that current situation in Jakarta according to its main land use is not appropriate for sustainable city. It is shown that there are still imbalance or gap between economic, social, and environmental condition.

Infrastructures

What I mean with infrastructure here are tools available in the city provided by the government for the benefits of people in doing their daily activities. In this section, because of limited time and space available I will only discussed infrastructures that related with the environmental condition in Jakarta. In this regards, I want to highlight infrastructure in the solid waste management. The solid waste management is very important since Jakarta has so many populations. Every day, the population of Jakarta—and of course the same happen in other cities in the world—will produced waste from their daily activities. This wastes are needed to manage carefully, therefore they could not cause environmental problem.

If we look on the solid waste management in Jakarta we will find some information below.

Table 3
Volume of Solid Waste and Number of Garbage Trucks Available in Jakarta 1999

Source: Yusi, 2000; Jakarta in Figures 1999, Jakarta’s Central Statistic Agency
The tabulation is reprocess by the author

Based on the table 3 above, we can find that not all the solid waste produced by the populations could be collected and then process. The number of uncollected waste is 18.36 % of the total wastes. The limitation of equipment such as trucks to collect the wastes is may become one possible reason why not all the wastes could collect. By showing these figures, the JPG should pay much attention on the solid waste management. The uncollected wastes will become source of the problems for environmental condition in Jakarta if the government can not managed this problem in the appropriate manners.

Besides solid waste management, another infrastructures also need to manage well by the JPG. Without better management in the future will lead Jakarta to be unhealthy city for its inhabitants whereas in the future we can predict that there will be much more people than today.

How to managed Jakarta in the Future? what actions that should be take by the Jakarta Provincial Government?

In order to find a better way in managing our city especially for the sustainable urban management, we should look and learn from the best practices that ever been done by other cities.

One of the interesting approaches to the sustainable city according to Brilhante (2001) was the ‘ecological city’ by the Dutch Government. This approach which so-called ‘Ecopolis’ strategy frameworks includes three complementary focuses on the city: the responsible city, the living city and the participating city.

If we go back to my three proposed aspects to be prioritized by the JPG and considering which actors are involved in each of the aspect, than we could use concept of the participating city in the ‘Ecopolis’ strategy above.

The participating city concept is an act that should make the difference actors in the city play an active role in its management. Only then, it will be possible to make full use of the enormous local resources potential (human and capital).

When it comes to populations, land surfaces, and infrastructures then we can identify that all possible actors should be involve in the planning process. These actors are all the level of government (central, regional and local), the private sectors, and the popular sectors (CBO’s, NGO’s, households, and the Media).

The central government is key actors because of the central government has authority in enacting the national laws. These national laws should become guidance for the local government. The regional government in term of other local government, in this case the government of West Java Province, Banten Province and all its region governments that include in the Jakarta Metropolitan Region. They are become key actors because of the need for cooperation when the JPG dealing with the urban management. Not all the problems can solve within the boundary of the City of Jakarta. Sometime we will need help from other region in certain problem.

In the new urban management, the private sector will play the greater role than before. The trend today in urban management is to involve the private sectors together with the public sectors in providing some goods and service. The approach is so-called ‘Public Private Partnership’. In regard to main problems of this paper, the private could involve in providing infrastructures for the community.

Last but not least, the role of community is very very important in the future time. When we are dealing with the policy and then we can sure that people will be effected by the policy taking by the government. And in order to take a policy that’s really needed by the people than the governments should involve people in the policy making process.

After we identified the problems that should be prioritized in the Jakarta’s Urban Management and identified the keys actors involve than we will continue to identify the potential steps to take to come to a strategic integrated development vision by using the concepts of organizing capacity and integrated urban management.

According to GTZ and USAID-CLEAN (2001), capacity is the ability of an individual, an organization or a system to perform functions and to meet objectives effectively and efficiently. This should be based on continuing review of the framework conditions, and on a dynamic adjustment of functions and objectives.

Integrated could be describe as the efforts to consider all the aspects that could affect the city performance in the planning process. In regards to sustainable urban management the aspects that should consider to integrated are the social, economic, and ecologic aspects.

Based on the above definition, what is mean by organizing capacity and integrated urban management is an effort in managing city by considering all the important aspect integrated in the planning process through the strategic development vision by using all the capacity available of the city. The capacity in here could come from the government institution and other key actors institution.

Relate to populations, land spaces, and infrastructures, the steps to take to improve all the three aspects in general as follow. The steps must be taking within the framework of sustainable urban management.

The JPG should have clear mission and vision for the development of the City of Jakarta. This mission and vision will become guidance for the JPG in prioritizing certain development aspects. The mission and vision should also address the important aspects for the development.

In implementing the mission and vision, the JPG should make adjustment for their organizational capacity. It is including the adjustment of cultural behavior in the government and the community.

The JPG should also make adjustment with their financial capacities. Money is very important to implement the plan.

In order to get more revenue and decreasing the unnecessary cost, the JPG should have a market-oriented capacity.

The JPG need also to develop strategic/anticipating/innovating capacities. Better prevent than cure according to Osborne in managing the government. For this reason, the government should have capacity in making strategic planning for their city.

The JPG should prepare the community capacities that can be support the government action.


Concluding Remarks

Managing city is not a simple problem, especially for the big and populated city such as Jakarta. However with the existing of problems will become challenges for the JPG in developing strategy for their city development.

By identification the main problems exist in Jakarta, I am insist that in the future, the JPG should give better priority for three aspects of the development: populations, land spaces, and infrastructures. This three aspect are very important aspects in my opinion.

In managing the city, the JPG should also learn from the best practices in the world and adapted with make adjustment first with the local conditions.


Reference

Asian Development Bank, 2000, Sustainable Development in Asia, Manila: Asian Development Bank

Brilhante, Ogenis M, 2001, “Urban Environmental Management”, Reader for MSc Students in Urban Environmental Management, HIS Rotterdam

Bruff, Garreth E and Adrian P Wood, 2000, “Local Sustainable Development: Land-use Planning’s Contribution to Modern Local Government”, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Volume 43, No. 4, July 2000

Cunningham, William P and Barbara Woodworth Saigo, 2001, Environmental Science: A Global Concern, 6th edition, New York: Mc Graw Hill

Cybriwsky, Roman and Larry R Ford, 2001, “City Profile Jakarta”, in Cities, Volume 18, No. 3
Meadows, D.L. 1995. It is too late to achieve sustainable development, now let us strive for survivable development. In: S. Murai (ed.), Toward Global Planning of Sustainable Use of the Earth: Development of Global Eco-engineering, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Ministry of Home Affairs and Regional Autonomy and National Development Planning Agency of the Republic Indonesia, 2001, “Capacity Building for Local Governance: A Framework for Government Action and Donor Support”, Final Report, GTZ / USAID-CLEAN Urban Capacity Building Needs Assessment for Local Governments and Legislatures, [Homepage of GTZSFDM], [Online], Available: http://www.gtzsfdm.or.id/ [2001, 5 October]

Samuelson, Paul A and William D Nordhaus, 1998, Economics, 16th edition, New York: Mc Graw Hill

Wackernagel, Mathis et al. 1997. Ecological Footprints of Nations: How Much Nature do they Use? How Much Nature Do they Have? Earth Council. San José, Costa Rica

Yusi, Andriazi Syah, 2000, “A Comparative Analysis of Public and Private Waste Collection in Jakarta”, MSc Thesis in Urban Infrastructure Management, IHE Delft and HIS Rotterdam

posted by Teguh Kurniawan @ 10:14 PM