BandungBergerak.id – Pasir Salam Village is located on the western outskirts of Sempur Village, Plered District, Purwakarta Regency. It takes 20 minutes to get there from the Cikampek Line. There are several road options to get to the village with 80 families. One of them is Kopeng Road.

The road cuts through a huge expanse of rice fields. It is less than one meter wide. Easy for pedestrians, but not so for motorcyclists.

Walking along Kopeng Road for 700 meters, we can see the Jakarta Bandung High Speed Train (KCJB) line. There used to be 16 houses on the area. The construction of the giant infrastructure, one of the National Strategic Projects (PSN), forced them to move to an area on the border with Depok Village.

In Pasir Salam village, there is a four-hectare rice field owned by 13 residents that has been leased for five years by the high-speed train project manager since 2017. The land was not used for infrastructure development, but for disposal of the project's remaining soil. The rental price is Rp. 50,000 per meter.

Inah, 53, is one of the residents who leased her rice field. Flourishing land turned into a dry pile of concrete. 

“Kapungkur mah mobil oge dugi kadieu teh, seeur, da muatan itu pan coran. ‘Bruk bruk’, kadieu teh, panyaeuran tea disebatna,” (During construction, many cars also came here, carrying leftover cement. 'Bruk bruk' came here, it's called panyaeuran),” said Inah, met on Wednesday, August 9, 2023 in the morning.

No longer able to plant and harvest rice, Inah and her family make a living by running a shop at home. The youngest, Inah's ninth child, is still in the second grade of senior high school and needs financial support. At one point crowded by project employees, the shop now relies on the presence of neighbors.

During the dumping process, the company installed a 100-Watt lamp in front of Idong's house to illuminate those who working at night. Unfortunately, the electricity bill was never paid. Inah's husband Idong, 61, kept the lamp in his shop as a kind of collateral.

"Cenah sa sasih sakali bade mayar, epek teh teu aya (They said they would pay once a month, but they didn't)," said Inah with a bitter smile.

Buried River Flow

In the former rice fields that are now dry and terraced, several dragonflies and birds can be seen flying around the drowned stream. That is the Cikuda River that divides Sempur Village and Depok Village. The Cikuda River is also the main source of water for the villagers to fulfill their daily needs.

After the river was buried, 16 families turned to water sources on Mount Cilamega. In the dry season, the water debit from the mountain is small but clear. It is different when the rainy season arrives. The water is abundant, but white in color. In order to store the water in their homes, each family has to install a 300-meter hose, which not all of them can afford.

"If you have the money, buy (the hose). If you don't have money, you can’t buy it," said Esih, 38, Inah's first child, when accompanying her mother to wait at the shop, Wednesday, August 16, 2023 in the morning.

Residents who could not afford to buy a hose and had no place to store water at home would go to the communal bathing, washing and toilet (MCK) at the end of the river. To obtain drinking water, they buy water or occasionally draw from a well near the house of the head of RT 16.

When heavy equipment was still operating to dispose of the disposal land and the shallows into the rice fields, the residents had requested that the concrete covering the river flow be removed. The employee who was working at the time refused and said the removal of the concrete would be done after the project was completed. But in fact, after the project was completed, the Cikuda River is still buried to this day.

“Perjanjian cenah air bakal ngalir. Perjanjian na teh jang ibak, bade pangadameulkan bak di ditu, ga ada. Eta disalurkeun deui sungai, ga ada. Jadi ruksak weh,” (The agreement said the water would flow (as before). The agreement was that there would be a place to take a bath, a tub would be made there. In reality, there is none. It wants to be re-routed to the river, nothing. So it’s broken)," said Manap, 61, who has been the head of RT 16 Kampung Pasir Salam for 25 years, when met on Wednesday, August 9, 2023 in the afternoon.

Apart from the disappearance of rice fields and the buried river, residents also suffered damage to buildings. Mukhtar’s house, 61 years old, for example, suffered damage to its walls and floors. The high-speed rail construction project is only 500 meters away from his house. When the project is underway, often until 10pm, Mukhtar's children are afraid to stay alone. One of the walls of the house was almost split.

"There is no (compensation money), only vibration fees. If it is on the side of the road, it is kebul money. The vibration money is only paid once, 25 thousand (rupiah)," said the farmer who works on rice fields owned by residents of Depok Village.

Will be Coordinated

Under the umbrella of the National Strategic Project (PSN), many stages of the high-speed rail construction have taken place quickly. Presidential Regulation (Perpres) number 26 of 2015 on the Acceleration of the Implementation of Infrastructure and Facilities for the Jakarta Bandung High Speed Train requires local governments to adjust their spatial plans.

Gigin Ginanjar, secretary of Sempur Village, said that the socialization of the high-speed train project to village officials was relatively slow. In fact, it was the brokers who first bought the land by directly visiting the houses of residents who would be affected by the construction. Till today, villagers are still complaining about land-related issues.

"Yesterday there were also two reports, until now they have not been paid," said Gigin in his office.

What Inah's family experienced in Pasir Salam Village can also be found in other areas along the Jakarta Bandung High-speed Train infrastructure development route. The collaboration team of BandungBergerak.id, Pikiran Rakyat, and Radar Bandung found quite a bit of stories about adverse environmental impacts. Starting from the loss of springs to flooding incidents.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) West Java opened a complaint post for the impact of the KCJB project from December 2019 to January 2021. A total of eight cases were reported by residents, ranging from damage to house buildings, disposal, waste pollution, disappearance of springs, to flood disasters. The location of the cases varies, from Purwakarta to Gedebage.

Walhi Jabar Director at that time Meiki W. Paendong stated that of the eight reports, intensive assistance was carried out for the case of house damage in the Tipar Silih Asih complex, Padalarang. The report has been submitted twice to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), in October 2020 and October 2021 respectively. "But until now there is no clarity of handling," he said.

The disposal case reported to Walhi Jabar occurred in Depok Village, a neighbor of Sempur Village. Residents asked the high-speed train manager to buy former rice fields that were no longer productive because they were buried in concrete, but they were rejected. What the manager did was merely to fix the water channels to the rice fields that were buried in the shallows.

Asked for clarification, General Manager Corporate Secretary of Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC) Eva Chairunisa did not respond. KCIC Corporate Communications Manager Emir Monti said that the company is open to communicating with residents. "We will check various public complaints, various information that we receive to ensure further coordination with the community," he said when met at Padalarang Station on Saturday, September 9, 2023.

Who knows when that goodwill will come. In front of her house in Pasir Salam, Inah can now only see dry land, while the high-speed train speeds away from her.      

*This report is part of a collaborative work initiated by LBH Bandung and BandungBergerak.id with the support of Kurawal Foundation, translated by Khumaira Birru Al Walidain