Jakarta, the City of Problems

Traffic jam is the biggest and incessant problem of my hometown, Jakarta. The terror of getting caught in a seemingly boundless ocean of motor vehicles haunts us at any time and any corner in this city of more than 8 million people. Recent research conducted by the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) shows that if there are no further mending in public transportation, the traffic of Jakarta will utterly dead in the year of 2014. The estimation is based on the statistics from the Department of Transportation which show that the number of vehicles in Jakarta is estimated to be more than 7 million vehicles, with an increasing rate of 11% each year. Ironically, the statistics also revealed that the growth of the road length was not even reach a percentage number of 1% annually. Then virtually from the numbers above, we can simply notice how there is an unbalance between the rapid growth of vehicles and the construction of streets in Jakarta which increase the probability of traffic jam. The problem of traffic jam is still undaunted although the government has tried so many things, such as the building of bus way, implementation 3-in-1 system, and construction of various streets and highways. In spite of all efforts of the municipal government of Jakarta, the traffic jam is a prevalent dilemma that makes my hometown so notorious.

The litter mismanagement is another major quandary that occurs in Jakarta. At a glance, the main streets in the metropolis look so clean with no even single trash in it. But when you look at the brownish river with the “things” that it carries along and lesser streets, the true evil is revealed. According to the statistics of the Sanitation Department, Jakarta produces about 6,000 tons of waste each day with domestic waste contributes to 58% of the total amount of daily waste production. Again, just like the traffic jam problem, there is an unbalance in the waste management system. The TPA of Bantar Gebang can only receive 3,000 tons of litter each day, while the TPST of Bojong can only accept 250-400 tons of inorganic waste and 800 tons of organic waste each day. In the TPA of Bantar Gebang, the 108 hectares wide plains had become vast heaps of rubbish with the approximate height of 25 meters. In the end the waste was not really managed and treated well, thus it makes any place in the city as a dumping place for trashes. The fact that most of the people are lacking in discipline of trash disposal and fondness of sanitation only worsen the trouble. No wonder why the city of Jakarta was known for its garbage.

Flood is an additional problem that makes Jakarta an unpleasant place to live. The occurrence of a major flooding in Jakarta was almost annually or in a cycle of years. One of the terrible floods occur in 1996 when area of 5,000 hectares were flooded, 85 people were killed and about 350,000 people were forced to leave their homes, the losses from infrastructure damage and state revenue were at least 5.2 trillion rupiahs. The same disaster did happen again in the year of 2002 and 2007 with the number of losses similar to that of 1996. Those suffering have inflicted heavy losses to so many people and the government itself repeatedly. Despite so many things have been tried by the incumbent officers such as cleaning the river and constructing gigantic canals, yet still the flood problem is a matter that only time will know when it will be ended. As the year past by, the flood always ravage Jakarta violently, leaving many victims.