Banjarsari, city hamlet with a clean environment

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The residents of Banjarsari hamlet in Cilandak Barat subdistrict, South Jakarta, are among the handful of Jakartans who pay serious attention to their environment.

Unlike many other places in the heavily polluted capital, Banjarsari, located near the Jl. TB Simatupang toll road and Jl. RS Fatmawati, is green and clean.

The main characteristic of this multiethnic hamlet, with fewer than 1,000 residents, is that there are plants in every house and yard. Those with spacious yards have large trees, like fruit tree, while others have flowering plants or potted plants.

"Planting trees has become a habit for most people here. As you see for yourself, there is no house here without plants or flowers," said Noer Djaja, the head of neighborhood unit (RW) 8, where Banjarsari is located.

Noer is right. There are some houses with small yards that have over 50 flowering and fruit trees growing in pots. They have also put pots out by the road near their houses.

These "greening" activities were initiated by a resident, Harini Bambang Wahono, in 1980. Since, she has made continuous efforts to convince her neighbors to take care of the environment.

Impressed by her work, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) made the area a pilot project for community waste management in 1996. Harini was trained as an instructor for the project.

While piles of garbage dot the city, including the streets, the people of Banjarsari are making an effort to manage their domestic garbage based on environmentally friendly principles. Some 30 percent of organic domestic waste is turned into compost, according to Noer.

Residents here dispose of their waste in three different colored garbage cans. The red cans are for inorganic garbage like plastic, cans and metal. The green cans are for organic garbage that can be turned into compost, and the yellow cans are for liquid waste that is not used for compost.

Noer, however, admitted that the system did not run entirely smoothly, as not everyone separated their garbage correctly.

The biggest problem is that the waste management system is not integrated with the city administration, which does not have an environmentally friendly waste management system.

"While we separate the garbage here, it is mixed up again when it is picked up by the (city) garbage trucks. Therefore we are still unable to thoroughly implement the system," said Noer.

Banjarsari covers 3,365 square meters and is home to 231 families, or 938 people.

Barni Lagiman, 68, said there were only 14 families in 1965 when he moved to Banjarsari from Tulung Agung, East Java.

"The kampong was still surrounded by a rubber plantation and Jl. Fatmawati was still made of dirt," Barni recalled, adding that the streets of Banjarsari were paved in the early 1980s by the residents.

As more and more people moved into Banjarsari the area became crowded, but improved environmental awareness has motivated residents to make their neighborhood green and clean.

Barni noted that many of the residents began planting trees about 10 years ago. Harini on Page 20