Bad habits 'hinder' healthy living plans
JAKARTA (JP): A lack of awareness and positive attitude toward healthy living among residents here often hinders efforts to develop a healthy city, an official said yesterday.
The director general for contagious disease and environmental sanitation, Hadi M. Abednego, said many people still failed to understand the consequences of their actions.
"For instance, a street cleaner sweeps the roads and eventually throws the junk into the gutter. This is ridiculous. By dumping the trash into a conduit it will only contribute to flooding."
He said people's habits needed to be changed, adding that many officials did not understand the concept of creating a healthy environment.
Abednego made the comments after presenting a paper during the first day of a three-day seminar staged by Atmajaya University on developing a health city.
He said the cultural gap between people from urban and rural areas was to blame for the ongoing problem.
"Every year Jakarta is flooded by newcomers. It is hard to train them into getting used to the urban lifestyle. Some of them, for example, probably do not have any idea how to use a modern toilet. It's a matter of culture and education.
"It takes time and hard work to change people's behavior. The municipality never stops its continuous campaigns to educate residents about sanitation.
"But I tell you it's not easy to teach some 11 million residents who come from different backgrounds."
In his presentation, Abednego revealed the 10 criteria which should be included in the process of developing a healthy city.
Among the criteria are the following: a city should create a healthy and comfortable environment with proper trash management; improve air and water quality; control vehicle emission and liquid waste treatment; provide sufficient job opportunities and education facilities; have adequate human settlements, recreation centers and health centers.
When asked which steps were most necessary for Jakarta, he said all 10 criteria should be implemented quickly and properly.
"Jakarta is a metropolitan city with complex problems. I say that the government must work on all of the 10 conditions to create a better city."
He said if Jakarta failed to work toward creating a healthy city now, it would probably turn into a necropolis or city for the dead.
"Population is the main problem here. The average population growth rate in every big city, including Jakarta, is about 4.4 percent each year.
"This is crazy because it may later lead to more slum areas in this city and the consequence we are already experienced: environmental health degradation."
The Jakarta administration has launched various programs in a bid to create a healthy city, including the Blue Sky program for air pollution control and the Clean River program to remove illegal dwellers from the riverbanks.
"But I admit running one of these projects is not easy, as many violations occur. Therefore, the authorities should also impose severe penalties on violators," Abednego said.
Among the speakers at the seminar, which will conclude tomorrow, are environmentalist Andrzej Wojczak from Japan and Ton Van Naerssen from The Netherlands. (edt)