Down by the riverside - Kali Ciliwung

Down by the riverside - Kali Ciliwung



Henri Ismail
Among Indonesians, Jakarta is famous for its shiny, high rise buildings and luxury malls. But it is also famous for its slums. Bukit Duri, through which the Ciliwung River runs, is one of them.

The Ciliwung River is the longest and the most polluted river in Jakarta. Migrants to the city live cheek by jowl along its banks. They live in very poor and unhygienic conditions.

Many of these migrants pay Rp.1,500 (US$0.13) per night to rent modified basements along the riverbank. One room is typically shared by many people, all using the same space to sleep, pray and eat.

Most of the migrants who live on the Ciliwung’s banks have come to look for work in Jakarta. Some are jobless but many of them scrape together a living selling items on the street. Some sell small household goods, others sell fresh produce. From this they can earn between Rp.30,000 (US$2.60) and Rp.100,000 (US$8.70) per day.

Others make a living collecting garbage from the river, which they can sell. Garbage recyclers generally earn between Rp.10,000 (US$0.87) and Rp.20,000 ($US1.74) per day, depending on what they can gather from the river. It is a good day for garbage recycler if the river turns up iron or aluminium.

Some of the people who live here come from West Java, two to four hours away by road. Others come from Central or East Java, eight to twelve hours by train. Mostly, they only stay a few weeks on the Ciliwung before returning home. But they almost always plan to return, and spend their lives moving back and forth between their home villages and Jakarta.

The banks of the Ciliwung, where I started taking photographs in 2007, are places of extreme poverty. But the people there have a warmth and friendliness. Their communities seem so very alive to me, and this is what keeps drawing me back to photograph them. ii

Henry Ismail (henri.ismail@gmail.com) was born in Jakarta. He studied political science at graduate level. He learned photography through night classes at Cultureel Centrum TU Delft, The Netherlands and by attending several workshops in The Netherlands, Spain and Indonesia.

See also H Angga Indraswara's Water woes





Inside Indonesia 95: Jan-Mar 2009