Bidara Cina slum now a healthy area

Bidara Cina slum now a healthy area

JAKARTA (JP): Bidara Cina kampong in Jatinegara area, East Jakarta is difficult to find.

"You have to go to Kampung Melayu bus station and take a Metromini bus to Otista (a popular acronym for Jl. Otto Iskandardinata), stop in front of an Economic Institute, then walk through a narrow alley next to the campus," directed Pak Noorsy, head of Bidara Cina subdistrict, by telephone.

Once a slum and flood-prone area, it has been transformed into one of the city's most accomplished sub-districts in terms of cleanliness and successful community improvement activities.

Located on the bank of the Ciliwung river, the sub-district has been rejuvenated by the Better and Healthier City Program, jointly supported by the University of Atmajaya in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, the city government and some community-based organizations.

John Legimin, vice chairman of Faseh, the City Health Forum, said that the program aims at improving the kampong's sanitation, health, public facilities, roads and regreening programs.

A few years ago, John said, the kampong was dirty, the air was filthy, garbage was piling up in every corner of kampong streets because they were too narrow for garbage trucks to enter.

In rainy seasons, the conditions were even worse. Floods were an annual event for Bidara Cina's 90 families. Their houses were inundated with dirty water from the Ciliwung river.

"We were quite fed up living in this place. Every year, we faced annual floods which damaged our homes and roads; but worse than that were the dengue and diarrhea epidemics that followed," explained Noorsy.

But not anymore. Through the Kampong Improvement and Healthy City Program, the Bidara Cina residents were given the opportunity to improve various public facilities to enhance the quality of their living conditions.

Dr. Charles Suryadi, professor of public health at the Catholic University of Atmajaya, said the program is not a gift or a grant.

"It has been designed to involve the community. They proposed their own projects, implemented and enjoyed their hard work," said Charles, who heads the Atmajaya Community Development Programs.

Community participation is needed to find out what their basic needs and values are and to create appropriate programs, explained Charles.

"We need to create a new form of public entrepreneurship, trying to anticipate problems rather than simply reacting to them," he added.

To carry out and monitor the program, a community-based forum involving volunteers, residents and some consultants was established.

Charles said that since the early l980s, the Indonesian government has launched several programs for urban improvement such as Wahana Tata Nugraha (safe transportation), prokasih (Clean River Program), Gerakan Disiplin Nasional (National Discipline Movement), Gerakan Jumat Bersih (Friday Clean Movement).

These programs, however, aim at obtaining rewards; meaning that they were oriented towards results and the attainment of physical targets, commented the professor.

The healthy city movement in Indonesia has long been initiated at the central level. The process indicates the dominant role of central government as the initiator.

The Adipura Award, given to the best city in Indonesia, overly emphasizes the assessment of output which is dominated by the government without community participation.

"I heard some mayors had provided 'presents' to the judges in order to get the Award. Such a top-down and 'nasty' practices carried over from the New Order period must be eliminated," he pointed out.

Charles listed some remarkable accomplishments that were achieved in partnership with the people of Bidara Cina subdistrict.

"The kampong is clean and green. It has adequate public toilets, paved roads, a community health center and monthly Posyandu to check the health of their babies and toddlers," he said.

The forum also properly manages social safety net funds from the government to help residents develop small-scale businesses.

Norsy confirmed that the most important point is increasing the awareness of the residents for the need to keep their kampong clean and to lead a healthy life.

"When the program was started, people were reluctant to join. It was very difficult to convince them of the benefits of the program," admitted the subdistrict's head.

Now, even children know how to dump garbage, clean their homes and participate in any community cleaning activities.

It was during the economic crisis (early l997) that the people felt the advantages of this program, added Norsy.

"When other people were out of work, many of our residents survived because their businesses were running well," he said.

Norsy said that many important people including Erna Witoelar, Minister of Urban Settlement and Territorial Development, Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, and other high ranking officials have visited his kampong. "Two years ago, participants of the International Conference on Mega Cities came here to see our improvement project," Norsy said proudly.

Charles explained it is one of the examples of effective community-based city health movement.

He said such programs currently are being implemented in several cities including Cianjur (West Java), Bandar Lampung (South Sumatra), Balikpapan (East Kalimantan), Malang (East Java) and Pekalongan (Central Java).

"We keep complaining that such urban improvement programs need a lot of money that we don't have," Charles said.

As a matter of fact, none of this is primarily a matter of money. "It is rather a matter of proposing a concept, an idea, a project that is advantageous and achievable and for everyone to participate," Charles added. (raw)