Bogor wants to eschew dirty city label
Bogor wants to eschew dirty city label
Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor
Threatened with the title of dirtiest city in next year's Adipura
city cleanliness awards, the Bogor municipality says it will
mobilize 1,100 sanitation officers to clean up various spots in
the city.
"The final judging will be done prior to the awards ceremony
on Environment Day on June 5, 2006, so we still have time to
clean up," Bogor Information, Culture, and Tourism Agency head
Yamin M. Saleh said on Tuesday.
He said that as of January, the officers together with the
military would clean up 23 spots around the city every Monday to
Tuesday and Thursday to Friday.
There will be a progress evaluation meeting every Wednesday,
Yamin added.
"We hope that the community will also participate in the
cleanliness drive every Saturday and Sunday, coordinated directly
by their district and community leaders," he said.
The Office of the State Minister for the Environment issued on
Dec. 15 an initial evaluation naming Bogor as one of the dirtiest
cities in Indonesia. Other cities mentioned were Depok,
Tangerang, Bandarlampung in Lampung province, Palembang in South
Sumatra and Batam in Riau.
Yamin admitted that several locations in Bogor such as
traditional markets, bus terminals and residential areas were in
dire need of attention. These include Bogor Market, Padasuka
Market, Baranangsiang bus terminal and Merdeka sub-terminal.
"When the central judging team saw these spots they decided to
give Bogor a lower score, such as in traditional markets where
there are no garbage dumps," he said, explaining that
cities were judged according to their park spatial plan, bus
terminals, shopping district, market and garbage dumps.
Separately, Bogor city council member Dadang Ruchiyana blamed
Bogor municipality's lack of seriousness in managing the city's
sanitation.
He said that the council itself had allocated Rp 20 billion
(about US$2 million) in the 2005 city budget for sanitation, both
for the Bogor Environment and Sanitary Agency as well as for the
sanitation forces.
"We really have to evaluate the city environment and sanitary
agency, if after three months there are no improvements, then
perhaps the municipality needs to question the current head of
the agency," Dadang said.
He also said that despite various bylaws on sidewalk vendors,
and traffic, there had been no serious action to enforce them.
"But I don't want to entirely blame the municipality, in this
case everyone including the council and the community is to
blame. Especially considering how low people's awareness of the
basic principles of sanitation is," Dadang said.