City's five mayoralties get Adipura awards
City's five mayoralties get Adipura awards
JAKARTA (JP): All five Jakarta mayoralties won Adipura awards
for cleanliness yesterday.
President Soeharto handed over the trophies in a ceremony at
Merdeka Palace marking World Environment Day.
The trophies were given to the five mayors who later carried
them in horse-drawn carts to City Hall, where Governor Surjadi
Soedirdja and other city officials welcomed them.
The horse pulling the traditional cart carrying South
Jakarta's award fell down at City Hall, minutes before the
governor was to signal for all the carts to leave for their
parades to their respective mayoralty offices.
Three types of cleanliness awards are given annually on World
Environment Day: the Adipura Kencana for cities that have won the
award five consecutive times or five times in six years; the
regular Adipura for cleanliness and a healthy environment, and
certificates.
Last year, for the first time in the city's history, all five
mayoralties received the award. It was also the first time
Central Jakarta received the Adipura Kencana award and the first
time North Jakarta ever received the award.
This year was the second time Central Jakarta mayoralty won
the Adipura Kencana award.
"This year's award was more difficult to get because the
evaluation was conducted during the election period," Central
Jakarta Mayor Abdul Kahfi said.
Surjadi said the presentation of Adipura awards proved the
city's cleanliness was well maintained.
"I have to thank officials and especially Jakartans for the
awards. Without people's support in the cleanliness program, we
would never make it," he said.
Cleanliness
Despite the awards, the city still faces an uphill battle of
maintaining cleanliness. "There's still many people who throw
garbage anywhere," Surjadi said.
North Jakarta received the award for the second time, while
West, East and South Jakarta received it for the third time.
In addition to Adipura awards, Jakarta also ranked second in
environment soundness in the provincial level and received the
Environmental Quality Balance (Neraca Kualitas Lingkungan Hidup)
award.
The city also ranked first in the clean river program at the
provincial level and received the Clean River Program Award.
The city's environmental bureau head, Aboejoewono
Aboeprajitno, said there were 89 participants in the city's clean
river program. Among them were hospitals, industries and hotels,
he said.
When asked about air quality improvement, Surjadi said that
the municipality had tried to improve city's air, such as by
conducting car emission tests.
"Currently, we are also in the process of socializing the use
of natural gas to motorists," he said.
In Bogor, the public crowded roadsides to watch the parading
of the awards for their city and regency, including Depok
administrative town.
Dozens of cars and motorcycles joined a parade starting at
noon from the Baranangsiang toll gate and ended at Bogor's City
Hall at 1:30 p.m. The Army training center's marching band was
part of the procession.
Mayor Eddy Gunardi appealed to residents to help keep the
award.
"At least residents should keep their gardens clean," he said.
It is the seventh time Bogor township has won the award since
1986. It lost the prize in 1990 and regained it in 1995.
The Students Association of Environment of Pakuan University
distributed stickers for public minivans to mark Environment Day.
The stickers appeal to people to dispose of garbage properly.
"It is wise to encourage people to throw waste where it
belongs," the stickers say. (ste/24/anr)