Jakarta – Mahmud and his family live in an unusual home. It is a small shack, constructed from wooden boards attached to thick steel pillars and roofed by tons of concrete blocks with a muddy river flowing below.

Mahmud's family is not alone. At least 20 families live in similar housing located under the bridge on the border between Menteng, Central Jakarta, and Pasar Manggis, South Jakarta.

Mahmud, 33, and his wife, Wati, have made the steel structures of the bridge their home for almost 10 years, whereas their baby daughter, Yanti, is a newcomer.

"It's not actually a house, but it is a home for us. I built it myself. It's halal (rightful by the law of Islam). I didn't steal to build it," he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

While a constant stream of traffic flows by overhead, beneath the bridge it is unusually quiet. There is the occasional tremor as trucks carrying heavy loads pass by overhead.

Mahmud built the shack in 1999 after his family house in Kampung Menteng Tenggulun, located near the bridge, was sold following his father's death.

"My family was poor and my father didn't leave us a lot of money. I decided to build the shack because I didn't want to burden my siblings," said the native Jakartan.

Mahmud makes a living by scavenging trash: plastic, cans and paper. Every morning and evening he goes to surrounding residential areas to look for reusable junk, from which he earns between Rp 25,000 and 35,000 a day.

"Most of the money goes to feed and take care Yanti; she's the most important. We can't hold out on meals for her," said Wati, who used to scavenge but now looks after the baby.

Most of the bridge occupants are scavengers, while the rest make a living as buskers and snack vendors.

Tasuyah, 58, makes fried snacks and sells them around the nearby neighborhoods. She was a scavenger but last year decided to try selling snacks because her physical condition no longer enabled her to scavenge.

"I no longer have the strength to walk for hours carrying a load on my shoulders. So I switched to making snacks instead," said Tasuyah, who shares a shack with her only son.

She is the most senior occupant under the bridge, spending half of her life scavenging and living in the area.

"I can't remember how long I've been here – probably for 20 or 30 years. Sometimes I sleep by the canal banks and other times I take the bridge," said the woman who earns Rp 20,000 at the most each day.

They are among hundreds of thousands of people in the city living in poverty. The city's expensive housing and overpopulation forces many to occupy public land illegally, such as railway tracks, river banks and parks.

Such conditions and locations isolate them from decent facilities.

Those under the bridge have to travel far to access clean water. They usually bring water from the nearest kampung in pails or buy water in jerry cans, costing them Rp 3,000 a can.

"There's a bathing facility in the kampung, but we have to pay for it. So we prefer to bring the water here and do it ourselves. The canal is our toilet," said Iwan, another scavenger, who has been living there for six years.

Without access to electricity, Iwan and other squatters use kerosene-fueled lamps at night. "It's enough, we don't own any electronics anyway. But sometimes we don't have money to buy kerosene," said the 29-year-old man.

With all the hardships they endure, the occupants face another threat from the administration, which plans to clear the canal banks and bridge. Last month, public order officers from Central Jakarta municipality drove them out from the bridge, but they returned.

"I'll probably have to a rent a room somewhere for a while, as I probably can't take up the banks," said Mahmud. "But we'll come back here for sure. We make our living here," he said. (dre)