City is cleaner and more healthy, says Surjadi

JAKARTA (JP): The municipality has been successful in environmental affairs but still has to make efforts to improve the less-developed areas, Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said yesterday.

The governor told the plenary session of the City Council at City Hall that one of the major success stories over the past year was how Jakarta had managed to keep its environment clean, beautiful and healthy.

"This has been made possible by the full support from the public," said the governor.

Citing an example, Surjadi said from January 1993 through March 1994, 1,264,000 trees were planted under the so-called one- million-tree campaign, about 70 percent of which were donated by the public.

Surjadi added that for the success the city had received several awards, which included the most coveted first-class Adipura award for the Central Jakarta mayoralty, and Adipura certificates for other mayoralties.

Surjadi said his administration would continue making the city cleaner, healthier and more beautiful by demolishing slums to pave the way for apartment construction. He also said he would set aside more plots for trees.

The city administration has included cleanliness, sanitation and greening in the so-called "nine strategic programs" it is implementing.

Surjadi said, aside from environmental problems, the city also improved in economic affairs; records show that the per capita annual income of the residents here now stands at Rp 3 million (US$1,397) and economic growth rose to 8.57 percent.

Slum

Surjadi said it is difficult for the administration to get rid of slum areas so they can build apartments because there is still very tough opposition from squatters. However, he added that the city administration would "continue the campaign to persuade them to move to apartments."

Surjadi said to build housing for middle and lower class residents, the city administration had no alternative to building apartments due the scarcity of idle land.

"Developing housing complexes in Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi is more difficult because the rapid migration of people from the rural areas," said Surjadi.

Meanwhile MH Ritonga, the City Council speaker, said in his speech that the council supported the municipal policy of developing apartments in slum areas. He also urged the municipal authorities to continue with their campaign.

"It takes time to make the public apartment-minded. However, the policy must be continued and the authorities should pay attention to the needs of the would-be apartment occupants by making sure they have adequate public facilities," said Ritonga. (jsk)