Earth Day celebrated in many ways

The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta/Jakarta

Indonesians marked Earth Day on Tuesday in various ways including stopping motorists and asking them to switch off their engines, asking smokers to put out their cigarettes and pulling down banners in green areas.

In Jakarta, about 100 environmentalists staged a rally at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, and called on people to care for the earth and conserve water.

They also opposed the privatization of tap water distribution in Jakarta and urged the city administration to expand green areas to cover 20 percent of the city's area.

In Yogyakarta, students from Gadjah Mada University's School of Geography distributed artificial flowers and flyers to passers-by calling on them to stop polluting the earth.

With the help of the police, they also stopped motorists at exactly 10 a.m. and asked them to switch off their engines for a minute to create a moment free of pollution.

Other student environmentalists staged a street rally, carrying posters and banners again calling on people to stop polluting the earth.

They marched from the university campus in Bulaksumur to the Post Office intersection near Yogyakarta's royal palace.

In Cirebon, West Java, around 300 student activists blocked the 500-meter-long Jl. Siliwangi for three hours to mark Earth Day, obliging hundreds of motorists to switch off their engines and smokers to stub out their cigarettes.

They also demanded that the city administration prevent coastal erosion, provide adequate trash disposal facilities and establish more green areas to the city.

In Surabaya, East Java, some 50 activists from the Environmental Concern Community pulled down banners in green areas in the city.

"Green areas should be treated as the city's lungs. But they have been converted by the city administration into business areas for the hanging of advertising banners," Lala, the coordinator of the rally, said.

In Purwokerto, Central Java, some 300 student and non- governmental organization activists held an anti-water resources bill rally to celebrate Earth Day.

They claimed the bill, which will allow private firms to manage water resources in the country, would only benefit a few people but cause misery to most of the people.

In Semarang, Central Java, student activists blocked Jl. Imam Barjo in front of Diponegoro University from 9.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m., demanding that the campus be turned into a smoke-free zone.