Jakartans lack awareness on how to keep city clean

Jakartans lack awareness on how to keep city clean

JAKARTA (JP): Public participation in sanitation was the most
important factor in the city's five mayoralties receiving Adipura
awards, the city environment bureau's head, Aboejoewono
Aboeprajitno, said Saturday.

But observers said a lack of public awareness was still a
problem.

Aboejoewono said the role of people in making and keeping
their surroundings clean was one of the most important criteria
for wining an Adipura award.

The decision was similar to last year, when all mayoralties
won the award for the first time. This year Central Jakarta got
the highest award, Adipura Kencana.

Aboejoewono was speaking at a one-day seminar on waste
management to commemorate the International Environmental Day
organized by the Indonesian Green Consumers Environmental
Foundation.

Besides sanitation conditions, Aboejoewono said sanitation
management was also a criteria.

He said Central Jakarta won the highest award despite having
dirty areas like Tanah Abang because such areas made up only a
small part of the mayoralty.

"Tanah Abang's poor sanitation was compensated by other areas
in the mayoralty which were good," Aboejoewono said.

But other speakers, including the State Ministry of the
Environment's Sunoto, and the Indonesian Forum for Environment's
Salam H.S., lamented Jakartans' lack of awareness about waste
management.

"Most people think they have already played their part in
overcoming waste by merely paying garbage fees," Sunoto said.

"If people here don't improve, the city will never solve its
waste problems -- even by 2020," he said.

Sunoto said it was difficult to raise public awareness.

"If people throw away garbage everywhere, other people are
likely to do the same," he said.

Both government and nongovernment parties should help raise
awareness, Sunoto said.

He said the city should regulate to ensure people participated
in waste management. A Rp 50,000 fine for littering has so far
proved ineffective.

"Nobody is reminding people who litter. In Singapore spies are
deployed," he said.

Sunoto said the burning of garbage should also be regulated.

"It's no use if people burn garbage because it causes air
pollution."

He said people should reprimand anyone they see littering.
"It's not a habit here yet," Sunoto said.

Jakartans produce 25,404 cubic meters of garbage a day, for
9.1 million cubic meters a year. About 73.9 percent of this is
organic.

The city can collect just 21,085 cubic meters of garbage a
day.

He lamented that only few people were interested in garbage
businesses like recycling waste into compost. "Maybe because the
market is not promising," Sunoto said.

A few residential groups have started making compost and the
city has received proposals from private companies to manage the
city's waste.

Proposals came from PT Dwipangga Sakti Prima, which is
controlled by President Soeharto's youngest daughter Siti Utami
Endang Adiningsih, and from the Yayasan Rehabilitasi Prajurit
Utama Seroja veteran's association.

Dwipangga proposed making compost, while Seroja proposed
recycling inorganic garbage into building materials.

Jakarta's garbage is taken to a 108-hectare waste disposal in
Bantar Gebang, Bekasi, West Java, which can bury 21,000 cubic
meters of garbage a day.

The city is planning to build a 100-hectare dumping area in
Ciangir village, Legok district, Tangerang. (ste)