The answer? A giant, rock-lined pit to hold millions of cubic meters of ooze and sludge dredged from the capital’s clogged rivers and reservoirs — and that should within a decade be firm enough to be used as reclaimed land.
It is the 120-hectare Ancol confined disposal facility, part of a project to clear Jakarta’s clogged and polluted waterways that was recently begun as part of the Jakarta Urgent Flood Mitigation Project, which is being funded by a $150 million loan from the World Bank.
During a media tour of the project on Friday, it was revealed that the reclamation site, measuring 800 meters by 1,500 meters, would be maintained by city-owned Pembangunan Jaya Ancol, the Ancol district’s developer.
“The eventual land that will be created will be owned by Jaya Ancol, and the Jakarta administration will have the final say on how it will be developed,” World Bank communication specialist Abdur Rahman Rasyid told the Jakarta Globe, adding that it would take eight to 10 years before it was solid enough to build on.
Consultant Rambat Sakwan said the site would be enclosed by a dike of rock, sandbags and bamboo poles and would be able to hold 12 million cubic meters of dredged material.
“It is part of the North Jakarta reclamation plan and the Jakarta Environmental Agency has given approval for the environmental impact analysis,” Rasyid said.
Stephen Lintner, senior technical adviser for the World Bank, said it had overseen continuous testing of sites slated for dredging to ensure that no toxic materials would be layered into the bay.
“It’s not toxic or hazardous. We are quite diligent in examining the environmental perspective,” he said. “Given the shortage of land, you will continue to have land reclamation. It has to be done selectively and with proper oversight.”
Local environmentalists, however, are not so easily assured that the waste is safe.
Ubaidillah, the chairman of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), expressed concern about material dredged up from Jakarta’s filthy rivers.
“You can see the rivers in Jakarta. They have been used as dump sites for all kinds of waste, from domestic to industrial,” he warned. “It will be full of bacteria such as E. coli and metals such as lead, copper and mercury. There’s a reason why there are no fish in the rivers. Dumping could worsen the quality of sea water in the reclamation area and endanger the marine life.”
Walhi has been a critic of the Jakarta administration’s plan for a larger reclamation project in the waters off North Jakarta that has been the subject of a battle between the city and the Environment Ministry.
On Thursday, Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said the dredging project would be delayed until next year. As much as 9.5 million cubic meters of sediment and garbage would be moved and river embankments repaired to stop further sedimentation.
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