Adipura cleanliness award to be revived

A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Frustrated by the prolonged dengue outbreak, the government has decided to reestablish the Adipura Award, a coveted cleanliness prize for towns across the country during the leadership of former president Soeharto.

"The criteria for the award will be set out transparently and towns should not excessively welcome award juries like they did in the past," Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi told a meeting on Thursday.

The meeting was attended by about 100 environmental and health officials from municipalities and regencies across the country.

Sujudi did not spell out the award's criteria, saying only that it should be based on the existence of minimum health services, a clean environment and good governance.

"We can also check whether there are mosquito larvae in the towns. It can become a requirement," he told the meeting on "Developing Healthy City and Environmental Quality Improvement".

However, Sujudi refused to say when the cleanliness contest would resume.

The annual award was stopped in 1997 due to the economic crisis and has never been conducted since the forced resignation of Soeharto in May 1998 after more than three decades in power.

Many observers criticized the granting of the award since the towns competed to secure it by giving presents to juries who came from the central government.

State Minister for the Environment Nabiel Makarim complained on Thursday many regents and mayors were no longer interested in winning the Adipura Award.

In the past, the award could be an incentive for mayors and regents to be reelected as they were elected by the president, Nabiel said.

The president no longer has a significant role in the election of mayors and regents, which are now picked by local legislative members.

The economic crisis was believed to have contributed to the emergence of certain diseases, including dengue fever, through less money being spent on public welfare, which lead to falling sanitary levels in the provinces.

More than 500 people have died of dengue fever since January, which is caused by aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

In areas in eastern Indonesia, the disease has increased recently as rainfall is still frequent.

The government has declared the disease a national emergency and has given free medical treatment to low-income patients.

However, many poor dengue patients have alleged they are being charged by hospitals and claimed some hospitals have refused to treat them.

Sujudi reiterated on Thursday the government had allocated Rp 50 billion (US$5.8 million) to help finance the medical costs of the disease.

"The money is there. We hope regional administrations are using it to help dengue patients," he said.