I only ask because it seems so easy here to just shrug rather than saying mea culpa.
For example, City Hall says that Jakarta's floods are apparently caused by folk dumping their rubbish in the drains and rivers. You don't read about plans to educate and encourage the public to recycle and to use less packaging. Nor are facilities to do that provided. And it's only taken 50?, 80? 100? years to actually build so-called flood canals. This is but one example, but I am provoked into this post by what I feel is an act of madness, or which would be if City Hall had actually acted as concerned citizens have aright to expect them to.
Abdul Malik, head of the Central Jakarta chapter of the Environmental Management Board (BPLHD), is quoted in the Post as saying that "thirty gas stations across Central Jakarta have failed to meet environmental standards in that they have not completed the required environmental impact assessment. Owners are required "to assure the safety of their gas station and to check the quality of its ground water."
Fine words which beg the question of who is responsible for enforcement of what appears to be an eminently sensible requirement. If there really are 32 gas stations - 30 owned by the state oil company, Pertamina, and one each by Petronas of Malaysia and Shell - which have failed to comply, then which bureaucrats should be fired?
However, my main and somewhat personal beef, is that Tebet Hospital (where Our Kid was born) on Jl. MT Haryono - admittedly in South, rather than Central Jakarta- has sold a plot of land which previously functioned as a car park. Under construction is yet another gas station. It will be in competition with a Shell station about 200 metres away which opened a couple of months ago.
That's not my worry.
What I'd like to know is twofold: doesn't Jakarta's spatial plan prohibit the siting of volatile facilities next to public buildings such as schools and hospitals?
Secondly, who is responsible for drawing up evacuation plans for the hospital in the event of a fire?
