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)