I went to the other side of Jakarta.
Disclaimer! This blog entree is not meant to bring certain districts in Jakarta down nor is it meant to dismiss (or make fun of) the conditions of the people living in them. This blog entree is simply meant to initiate discussion on the unequal urban spatial structure in Jakarta.
Remember my first blog entree from 2019? Yes, the one talking about struggles faced behind Jakarta’s glimmering opportunities. I want to go further into that topic and talk about the unequal urban spatial structure in Jakarta, because believe it or not, this,
Is the same as this,
This,
Is also the same as this,
The images above do not represent the various districts and areas present in Jakarta. Each district and area have challenges present in the community, so the images above aren’t solid representations of Jakarta as a whole.
Of course, we should take pride in clean city space and sustainable communities — but we shouldn’t ‘dismiss’ the conditions that many people live in. In Jakarta alone, we can see lots of different lives every corner we encounter: crowded flats, polluted space, sinking villages, etc.
I did a bit of research on why ‘slums’ develop, and according to Cities Alliance, there are two main reasons ‘slums’ develop: population growth and governance.
There’s, like, 10 million people living in Jakarta — and the lot of them are present as a result of rapid rural-to-urban migration. Unfortunately, not all of them were able to afford adequate housing, therefore having no choice except to live in areas that cannot offer security, comfort (yes, comfort is relative), and even basic needs such as clean water or running electricity.
The other reason for ‘slump development’ is governance, at least that’s what lots of researchers agree on. A huge amount of countries (Indonesia being one of them) are unable to respond to rapid urbanisation quickly enough. People are migrating to cities far quicker “than the planning process can incorporate them”. Governments either do not have the planning tools to deal with rapid urbanisation, or the tools that are already in place are not effective enough for the real-life conditions.
The main solution to this particular problem would primarily rely on the Jakarta government’s initiative to either relocate slums and/or upgrade slums. Further solutions include urban planning with citywide infrastructure development and/or public housing. Unfortunately, most of those solutions require quite a large amount of funding (whether public/government-based or private) — which could be a reason as to why the Jakarta government is acting relatively slow in this matter.
