REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Jakarta Bay reclamation project has affected the livelihood of the coastal communities and has damaged the environment, according to the People's Coalition for Equal Fisheries (Kiara).

"Jakarta does not require the reclamation project," Secretary General of Kiara Abdul Halim stated here on Tuesday.

Halim remarked that some 53 thousand people lived in coastal areas in the Jakarta Bay.

In other words, he noted, the coastal communities in Jakarta, West Java, and Banten had urged the government to halt the reclamation project.

"Kiara lauds the decision to temporarily suspend the Jakarta Bay reclamation project," he noted.

Former environment minister Emil Salim affirmed that the reclamation project should take into account the environmental impact.

"The reclamation should be conducted through a natural process by building dikes to prevent the rise in sea levels and to facilitate the flow of rivers into the bay. The rivers will deposit silt, which can be used to reclaim the land," an environmental expert explained.

He asserted that the reclamation process, involving the exploitation of reefs around the Thousand Islands for mining sand, would affect the marine ecosystem, alter the ocean currents, and harm the environment.

Earlier, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) had urged the government to cancel the Jakarta Bay reclamation project as it violated the rights of traditional fishing and coastal communities.

"The reclamation project has violated human rights such as the right to lead a peaceful, secure, happy, and prosperous life; the right to a good and healthy environment; the right to decent work; the right to stay; and the right to information," Wahyu Nandang Herawan, a staff member of the YLBHI, stated here on Sunday.

"If the Jakarta government goes ahead with the implementation of the reclamation project, it will violate human rights," the public lawyer of YLBHI remarked.

Wahyu remarked that the project led to structural imbalances between countries, corporations, and the people.

Through its policy, the Jakarta provincial government has used its powers to repress the traditional fishing and coastal communities.

Traditional fishermen could suffer losses as their access to the sea is restricted.

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