City is cleaner and more healthy, says Surjadi
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)