Cleanup campaign in North Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): Alumni of the Australia-Indonesia Youth Exchange Program will organize about 1,000 people, including scuba divers, to remove rubbish from Molek Beach on the Ancol coastline in North Jakarta today.

Coordinator Leonas Chatim said yesterday the one-day initiative, staged in conjunction with this week's 1997 Clean Up the World Campaign, will be held between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m..

Chatim said the campaign was frequently canceled due to a scarcity of funds needed to buy "basic items such as rubbish bags and protective gloves".

"We needed a minimum of Rp 6 million (USS$2,030) to pay for the equipment and materials and until Wednesday the situation looked pretty hopeless," he said in a statement.

"Fortunately," he said. "The Australian mining company BHP and the Australian-Indonesia joint venture bank ANZ Panin Bank came to the plan's rescue."

A similar campaign will be held at Kotok Island in the Pulau Seribu islands off Jakarta Bay tomorrow.

The island's cleanup day is jointly organized by Kul Kul Kotok Island Resort and Dive Indonesia, whose members are mostly expatriates. (jun/bsr)