Jakarta's first river taxi

Indonesian capital`s first river taxi gets mixed reviews

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A queue of people, many with children in tow, line up on a sunny Sunday morning at a small metal pier on the Ciliwung River for a ride on the first-ever water taxi in Jakarta - just for fun.

The white-painted ferry, decked out with two outboard motors and a seating capacity for 28 people, fills up fast. The boat then swings into the current, criss-crossing to avoid trash floating in the 20-metre-wide river.

But only a few minutes after leaving the pier, the motors suddenly seize because the boat's propellers are choked up with garbage. After the crew tilts the motors upward and pulls plastic bags, an unused sofa cover and ghastly looking slime from the blades, the river taxi continues through the garbage-clogged, turbid water.

"This kind of incident has occurred quite often, and we have to stop our voyage in the middle of the canal," Bowo, one of the drivers, told DPA.

The 1.7-kilometre route between Halimun and Karet districts, inaugurated in early June, is a pilot project that officials said they hope becomes a citywide transport system aimed at easing traffic snarls. It currently operates only a few hours on weekends.

"It is nice to have this kind of thing in the city," said Yudi, a resident of the southern Jakarta suburb of Cilandak who spent one and half hours on a bus just to get to the pier.

But like many visitors, Yudi considered the water taxi more of an amusement than an alternate mode of public transport in Jakarta.

"I came here with my son to ride the new water taxi service for fun," Yudi said.

Using the city's canals to ease traffic congestion is the brainchild of Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, who said he hopes the pilot project will spark new programmes to clean the city's fowl-smelling canals, revitalize slum areas along their banks and rehabilitate canal basins.

Sutiyoso, who built an express busway for the capital, said the city administration plans to add more boats to Jakarta's 13 waterways, which would be integrated with the city's bus routes and eventually with proposed subway and monorail lines.

He noted that rivers played a pivotal role in city transportation during the Dutch colonial era.

"You can say negative things about it now, but in the end, you will be happy," Sutiyoso, who will leave office when his second term ends in August, told reporters when launching the project.

While water taxis are a common and efficient means of everyday transport in other cities such as Venice and Bangkok, the garbage clogging Jakarta's waterways remains a formidable problem.

The city has more than 10 million residents and another 6 million in sprawling suburban districts and is plagued by traffic problems.

Roads are clogged around the clock with cars, motorcycles and ageing, smoke-belching public buses.

Environmentalists and transportation experts, however, have expressed doubts that the water taxi would prove to be a success, warning that much more needs to be done by the city administration.

Tulus Pribadi, head of public transport for the Indonesian Consumers Association, said that besides solving drought and flooding problems during the dry and rainy seasons, the waterway operators must also improve water quality along the routes.

"More studies are needed before using water taxis as part of the city's mass rapid transportation system," Tulus said. "We have to change people's lifestyle. They must stop throwing trash into the rivers and canals."

Activists from Friends of the Earth Indonesia (Walhi) estimated that Jakarta produces up to 8,000 tons of trash daily, but because public services such as garbage collection are limited, around 13 per cent of the waste ends up in the canals and rivers.

"Despite a bylaw prohibiting people from littering, residents continue to dump garbage in waterways with no legal consequences," Walhi's Slamet Daroyni said. "No one has been taken to court, jailed or fined for littering."

Ciliwung is the largest river traversing Jakarta. It regularly experiences low levels in the dry season and is frequently flooded during the rainy season.

Public enthusiasm
Despite the problems, Mohammad Zaki, head of Jakarta's water transportation agency, said the pilot water taxi service had sparked public enthusiasm, prompting operators to extend the service from four to six hours per day.

Elli Ariyanti, a 30-year-old civil servant, said the water taxi might prompt people to become more conscious of the environmental and health dangers of polluted canals.

"It would be nicer if the river is clean," said Ariyanti, who like most of the boat's passengers took a round-trip voyage costing 3,000 rupiah (33 cents). "In addition, the operators should be able to find ways to remove the smell."

Nevertheless, Ariyanti expressed scepticism that people would abandon their beloved cars and motorbikes anytime soon, arguing that the boats are slower than regular public buses.

An estimated 4 million vehicles clog Jakarta's streets, and the demand for personal vehicles is growing 11 per cent each year. Up to 600,000 people drive their cars into the city from outlying areas daily, contributing to pollution and traffic congestion. (*)