Dedi Mulyadi's 'weapon' to overcome West Java floods: Cancel building certificates on river banks

BANDUNG - West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi has prepared a radical enforcement scheme for various buildings that stand on river banks throughout West Java, including the option of revoking ownership certificates for residents in the area.

The firm step was initiated by Dedi's insistence on the Ministry of Public Works (PU) to immediately determine the definitive limit of the water protection area on the river border.

The determination is considered a legal key that allows the government to revoke the property rights certificate (SHM) that has already been issued in an area that is actually prohibited.

Dedi said that the arrangement of space in West Java had experienced serious anomalies due to the massive land use change on the river banks.

Many buildings, both commercial and residential, stand under the shelter of individual certificate legality, making it difficult to handle floods and restore river functions.

The inventory and determination of the river boundary by the Ministry of PU is considered by Dedi as a crucial legal basis or "weapon" for local governments to restore the ecological functions of rivers, which are now increasingly critical.

"I ask the PU Ministry to immediately determine where the river border points in West Java are. If it has been officially designated as a protected area, then the individual certificate issued on it will only be revoked by the ATR/BPN Ministry," said Dedi in his statement in Bandung, Antara, Friday, December 19.

The step, which he also conveyed in the West Java Spatial Coordination Meeting at Gedung Sate, Bandung, was considered urgent considering the risk of hydrometeorological disasters that continue to threaten West Java due to the narrowing of river bodies by illegal and legal buildings.

Apart from the river border issue, Dedi also revealed a worrying condition regarding the area of forest in the province with the largest population in Indonesia. Based on the data he has, the remaining forest area in West Java is now only around 700,000 hectares.

This condition prompted Dedi to propose an extreme policy in the form of the abolition of the production forest status in the revision of the West Java Spatial Plan (RTRW) which is being drafted to be implemented starting in 2026. This policy, according to him, is necessary to save the remaining existing ecosystems.

Through the revision of the spatial plan, Dedi emphasized the commitment of the West Java Provincial Government to make conservation the commander of development, in order to maintain the sustainability of water resources and living space in the midst of economic development pressures.

"I want there to be no more production forests. Our forests are only 700 thousand hectares, that is only data on the Ministry of Forestry map, the reality on the ground is not necessarily there are trees. We must focus on replanting and absolute protection, not on the use of wood," he said.