City needs more parks<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Only five percent of Jakartans live in
\napartments, hindering attempts to provide more green areas for a
\nbetter environment, Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said Monday.<\/p>\n
He made the statement after a private firm, PT Berkah Bangsal
\nKencono, symbolically donated 9,000 trees to the city's
\nreplanting program.<\/p>\n
Surjadi cited Singapore, where 95 percent of its population
\nlive in apartments, as a model city. However Surjadi acknowledged
\napartment living is new here, and regulating people to live in
\nthem would not be effective.<\/p>\n
\"Convincing them to move to apartments is difficult, so we can
\nonly use persuasive methods,\" he said.<\/p>\n
If more people lived in apartments there would be more space
\nfor green areas, he said, adding to earlier arguments that
\napartment living would reduce population density and provide more
\naffordable homes.<\/p>\n
Surjadi said the city ideally needed 40 percent of its 656
\nhectares for forests and green space. Only 12 percent of the city
\ncurrently consists of forest and green areas.<\/p>\n
The city's replanting program, launched on Jan. 10, 1993, with
\na national program, aims to plant one million trees per year.<\/p>\n
Surjadi said the city has almost reached its target of four
\nmillion trees since 1993, as 3,470,924 trees have been planted.
\nThe governor said 75 percent of the trees were donated by private
\ncompanies, and added that if the tree planting program was
\nsuccessful, the city would soon have 15 percent of green areas in
\nthe city. (02)<\/p>",
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"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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