Jakarta Is Stepping Up Efforts to Go Green

Parks and Recreation: Indonesia’s capital hopes to undergo an environmental makeover for the younger generation

Jakarta Globe, Lenny Tristia Tambun, Dec 13, 2014

The Jakarta administration aims to turn 30 percent of the capital into green
space. (Antara Photo/M. Agung Rajasa)

Jakarta. Jakarta is planning to build six parks that will cater specifically to children by March next year.

Veronica Tan, the wife of Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama and chairwoman of the city’s Family Welfare Association (PKK), announced the city had prepared land spanning 1,500 to 4,000 square meters for each park.

“Our target is to have these parks ready in three months,” Veronica said, adding that the administration would build one children’s park for each of Jakarta’s five municipalities and one district.

“The six parks will be a pilot project. In the future we will built at least two children’s parks for each urban ward.”

The parks, she said, would have to be in residential areas and inaccessible by motor vehicles.

“We aim to build a public space where children can do a variety of activities; so they have a healthy alternative to staying indoors, playing computer or watching television,” she said.

Veronica added that the PKK was lobbying the city for authority to manage the parks as the association has already drawn up plans to establish cooperatives or children’s health stations in each park.

“Another crucial aspect to this project is maintaining the parks, so they won’t be vandalized or abandoned,” she said.

Speaking at a Bank DBS Indonesia event where more than a thousand volunteers helped revamp the Kahfi Park in Ciganjur, South Jakarta, Veronica called on private donors to be more proactive in creating public spaces in the city.

“The government alone can’t make [the plan] happen,” Veronica said.

Speaking at the same event, Jakarta Parks and Cemeteries Agency chief Nandar Sunandar said the government planned to add another 50 hectares of parks by 2017 by converting 30 percent of the capital into green, open spaces, or RTH.

“RTH in Jakarta is still very scarce. Growth [of green spaces] in the last 10 years has been slow, from 9.85 percent to a little over 10 percent,” he said.

Basuki’s administration has been active in improving the city’s poor air quality and lack of public spaces, enacting in 2012 a city regulation that mandates 30 percent of Jakarta area to be green open spaces.

Nandar said the city also intended to turning South Jakarta into the “lungs” of the city by concentrating much of its efforts to building more parks in the municipality. South Jakarta consists mostly of residential areas but is rapidly growing into a commercial and business center.

It is unclear whether this drive would translate into stricter zoning regulations.