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Jakarta. The economic development of major urban areas like Jakarta must be balanced with environmental protection to stave off the threat from climate change, experts said on Wednesday.

Rukuh Setiadi, an urban and regional planning lecturer at Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java, said climate change is a real problem that needs to be properly planned for.

He said coastal areas are particularly prone to the impacts of climate change, adding that Jakarta’s north coast could be vulnerable to sea level rise.

“Coastal communities, which tend to be densely populated, face losing their homes and livelihoods,” he said at the International Conference of Southeast Asia Metropolises and Urbanization.

“There needs to be a breakthrough from the government, such as mapping and improving the drainage system in North Jakarta, which continues to experience regular tidal flooding.

“Unfortunately the plans that exist and their implementation never match, especially where vested interests are involved,” he said, citing a coastal reclamation project off the Jakarta shore that served business interests and not those of the local communities.

Endra Atmawidjaja, an urban environmentalist, blamed Jakarta’s current problems on the massive scale of development that outpaced the rate of environmental recovery.

Cities in developed countries, he said, also experience the problem of pollution, but their advanced economic capacity allowed them to restore their ecology effectively.

“We can’t do that because our economy, human resources and social and institutional awareness aren’t at that level yet, and so the environment keeps degrading,” Endra said.

He said that while growth was needed, adjustments should be made for environmental considerations.

“There must be intervention in the form of green infrastructure development and capable officials who can implement the city’s master plan in the right way,” he said.

He also blamed the regular flooding in Jakarta on the administration’s “weak capacity in urban planning and management.”

Meanwhile, Ubaidillah, chairman of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, said poor planning caused the city’s ecological woes, adding the settlement of people along natural drainage basins affect the land’s quality.

“Uncontrolled settlement has allowed people to live along riverbanks, which compromises the land’s solidity,” he said.

“In a few years, if there are no mitigation efforts, we fear the effects could be dire, since the condition is worsen by unpredictable rainfall as a result of climate change.”

Ninety-two percent of the city is highly prone to flooding, while the rest is mildly prone, according to a recent report from the Environment Ministry.

The report also says more than half the capital is prone to landslides and erosion, while only 2.74 percent is categorized as “safe.”