Community urges city to clean up

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 09/18/2006 8:19 AM | Jakarta

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Twenty-three-year-old street sweeper Jamal was all smiles Sunday.

He was able to knock off early and catch the bus home to his wife and their newborn baby in Karawang, East Java. Usually he works from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. cleaning up the sidewalks of Jl. Sudirman up to Dukuh Atas via Setiabudi.

More than 1,000 participants in the Clean Up the World campaign did Jamal's ""dirty work"" for him. Wearing plastic gloves, they picked up trash from Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to the main venue of the campaign in Gelora Senayan.

""We want to make Jakarta clean today,"" Indonesia Clean Up the World project officer Elizabeth ""Ega"" Goenawan Ananto told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

""(Cleaning up the city) is everybody's responsibility. Not only the government's but also the public's.""

She said clean-up days heightened awareness of the environmental problems in the city.

The event, organized by Clean Up Community, was held as part of community-based environmental campaign Clean up the World.

Starting in the first week of September, the Community has held a number of events this year, including the planting of 10,000 seedlings on five hectares of environmentally critical land in Bekasi and 1,000 seedlings in Bandung.

Last year, the group recruited 24,376 volunteers from 25 organizations, collecting a total of 25 tons of garbage nationwide. This is less, however, than 2003's 43,248 volunteers and 36 tons of garbage. The event was not held in 2004 because of the general elections.

The organizing committee has yet to calculate how much trash was bagged this year.

""This campaign is really important to us, because the government seems to ignore the (garbage) issue. Therefore, we must start with ourselves,"" Syarif, 23, a volunteer, said.

Jakarta produces 6,000 tons of garbage every 24 hours, however the city administration has yet to establish an appropriate waste management system.

Last week, a mountain of trash collapsed at Bantar Gebang dump in Bekasi, killing three scavengers and injuring five others. Some experts held the city administration responsible for the incident because of the poor waste management system applied at the 108-hectare site.

""I hope the administration realizes it's important to get people to change their ways and stop thinking of sidewalks as their personal trash bins,"" Ega said.

Jamal had the same thought.

"" It's exciting to know I'm not alone in cleaning up the streets. I hope it's not just for the day,"" he said. (09)

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