Land Reclamation Is More Complicated Than You Ever Imagined

We bobbed languidly in the chop as Asman removed plastic detritus from the propeller blades of his motorboat. The fetid, trash-strewn waters that fill the Jakarta Bay means fishermen like Asman must travel further from the shore to find their catch. The dangerously high level of lead and mercury contained in the water has prompted the city administration to ban mussel cultivation on public health grounds. Getting mired in the tons of filth that accumulate is an everyday occurrence for those trying to navigate to deeper water.

And it's not just pollution that threatens Asman's livelihood. Despite having fished these waters all his life, a land reclamation project designed to bolster Jakarta's sea defenses means he must maneuver around eight man-made islands that are currently licensed for construction.

"The fish have long left this bay. We have to go further, but our little boat can only go three kilometers out, and now have to go around the islands," Asman said. "We only bring home Rp40,000 ($3) per catch and pay four times that to go out. So what's the point?"

The $22.4 million (Rp 300 billion) reclamation plan is part of the greater National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD) program that will later include the "Giant Sea Wall," a mega project, championed by President Joko Widodo. The plans are a response to the tidal flooding that threatens Jakarta, a city of 10 million that sinks between 10cm and 20cm every year due to excessive extraction of groundwater. If completed as planned, the 5,100 hectares reclamation will comprise 17 islands, shaped into a giant Garuda — a mythical bird and Indonesia's national symbol.

But from its inception the development has been dogged by controversy over whose interests it will serve, and if it's the right solution to the complexities of Jakarta's flooding.

With Asman's propeller blades liberated from the plastic debris, we chugged towards reclamation "Island G," a 161 hectare sandbank on which big money developer Agung Sedayu Grup will build a 60 hectare sea wall of apartments, shopping centers, and office buildings.

Approaching the dock, he spotted the security guards, who walked towards the boat angrily.

"Some fishermen have thrown stones at them before," Asman said, yelling over the sound of the outboard motor. We veered away from the island and continued our tour of the reclamation from a distance. On Island C and D, tall commercial buildings are already under construction.

To many of north Jakarta's 17,000 fishermen, the islands and the sea wall are bad news. Increasingly unable to fish in the Jakarta Bay, some are looking further afield, to Lampung, South Sumatra, and Kalimantan. But the bigger boat required to reach those waters costs Rp 5 million per trip ($370), and there is an additional risk: pirates.

"Once our supplies and gas were taken at gun point. And all the seafood too," Asman said. Faced with these hardships, many of Jakarta's 17,000 fishermen can no longer fish and are forced to find other work.

Activists say the seawall project is erasing traditional livelihoods to make way for high-end apartments, malls, and office blocks.  They it will only make the Jakarta Bay's water more toxic as it blocks brown water from flowing out to sea.

But in spite of these protestations, something clearly needs to be done.

If the city's current rate of ground water extraction continues, some areas of North Jakarta will be several meters underwater by 2030. The homes of up to 4.5 million people could be permanently underwater.

On the day of our meeting, Asman's traditional village in Muara Angke was 5cm underwater due to tidal flooding. On the heaviest days of the wet season, the situation is far worse. For all his anger at the development, it's clear that he has as big of a stake in stopping the flooding as anyone.

"We can't simply say 'this is bad,' we have to see the big picture," said JanJaap Brinkman, hydrology expert at marine consultancy Deltares. "The fact that Jakarta is sinking cannot be overlooked. We have two options: evacuate the citizens of North Jakarta or start making changes."

"People seem to just say 'no' right away to this project and consider it as the cause of ecological damage and flooding," Brinkman said. "Because of the trash, rivers can no longer flow as freely and instead seawater can easily move onto land. The Giant Sea Wall would defend against seawater so that water level in Jakarta coasts can be managed."

"During high tides and especially if it's raining hard, the water cannot flow out of Jakarta," said Brinkman.

The biggest problem underpinning the issue is North Jakarta is barely a few centimeters above sea level. And while creating a barrier to prevent the sea from inundating the coasts is important, equally important is preventing the coasts from sinking any lower. Key to understanding how this can be achieved is addressing the problem of where Jakarta sources its freshwater.

The removal of groundwater over decades makes the city's soil shrink and therefore sink. In addition, the lack of water absorption means rainwater goes straight into the rivers and seas. From 1910, Tokyo had similar problems until they stopped groundwater extraction in the 1960s.

A massive under-supply of water, largely due to the toxicity of West Java's rivers, means Jakarta will not be able to stop groundwater extraction until 2030.

In 2010, the city hall banned groundwater usage for industrial and commercial uses, but the practice of water extraction is still widespread.

"Ever since 1988 we have warned Jakarta that they have to use water pumps for consumption, but there are no changes so far. It's a little too late, so it's now or never," said Brinkman.

Exacerbating the situation is that Jakarta's 12 freshwater reservoirs do not have the capacity to hold the volume of water that falls during heavy rainfall. The result is more floods.

But the engineers behind the Giant Sea Wall claim that it will also provide the alternative source of reservoir capacity that Jakarta needs to stop extracting from the ground.

As a secondary function, the wall will protect against the tides and seal the Jakarta Bay into a 100 square kilometer freshwater reservoir — providing additional reservoir capacity to help the city handle flooding from heavy rain, and a giant source of freshwater. Though questions remain over exactly how fresh this freshwater will be if it first flows through Jakarta's putrid waterways.

To prevent flooding of the reservoir itself, the Giant Sea Wall will later include a water pumping station with capacity of 700 square meters per second — the joint largest in the world alongside that of New Orleans. To pay for the pump, which Brinkman said might cost $700 million, the government is looking to profit from the real estate and commercial property it will build on the reclaimed islands.

But this, in turn, brings us back to tensions between the government-backed developers and North Jakarta's displaced fishermen. Put simply, the government is not going to use its expensive land reclamation to provide social housing that is cheap enough to be afforded by people as poor as Asman.

"According to the constitution, the land and seas should be used for the welfare of citizens, but the NCICD project and reclamation is only for the upper class," said Ian Wilson, research fellow at the Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University, who has conducted research on the citizens of Luar Batang, North Jakarta.

"There will be a social clash. The government is taking a national asset but not using it for the benefits of all citizens."

According to Wilson, the project should cover social justice and protection for marginalized citizens, but right now it doesn't seem like that will happen.

Last year, displaced fishermen from Luar Batang were moved to tower blocks in nearby Marunda that are further from the sea. But in defiance of the government eviction in April, dozens of families still insist on living in shacks among what's left of the Luar Batang fish market.

"There's no invitation from the developers and the authorities to discuss the reclamation," said Asman, who still doesn't know if his community will face a similar fate.

"We refuse to live in the tower blocks because it's too far. Besides, it's not practical to live there because we have to carry nets and fishing equipment.

"We don't mind living in our shacks, just as long as we can live near the sea."