Monas horse urine makes a stink

Evi Mariani ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 05/02/2008 1:33 PM  |  Opinion

First, they tried using water. The horse urine still stank. Later, they tried chemical agents, but still, it stank.

Eventually, the Central Jakarta mayoralty officials gave up and, last year, Muhayat, then the mayor, issued an order to get rid of the source of the problem along with their owners and delman (buggies) from Monas Park.

To the press, a number of officials, including new Mayor Sylviana Murni and Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, cited reasons behind the delman ban. So far the horse piss has received a variety of criticisms: "stinky", "polluting the environment", "dangerous for the respiratory health of children".

The reasons sounded sensible enough until the consequence of the ban became serious: The quality of life of hundreds of buggy drivers and their families was at stake.

In the beginning, the ban only made it hard for the drivers to earn an income, and they continued to take Monas visitors around the park, while playing hide and seek with public order officials.

In March, a new means of transportation arrived: Free of charge, diesel-powered tour buses.

The situation became worse for the buggy drivers. With the introduction of the buses, the buggy operators found it more difficult to stay discreet and, finally, in April, they staged three protests against the ban.

"We reject the ban. It has made us jobless. Besides, it will destroy Betawi's culture," said one driver.

"We have always followed the rules. First, they asked us to clean the horses' manure. We did clean it. Later, they restricted our operations to only weekends. We complied," another said. "What else could we do?"

"The administration should have given us a solution, like offering us an alternative place to operate. Don't neglect us!"

All of their statements were justified, but there was one that really hit the mark.

"The fumes coming from the diesel buses are more polluting than the horse urine," the drivers said in their official statement.

Nowadays, amid all the hype about climate change, fumes from fossil-fuel vehicles are widely believed to be among the causes of global warming.

Besides environmental risks, many studies have shown air pollution from motorized vehicles to cause a number of health problems.

A World Health Organization's study in 2000 showed the impacts of air-pollution on health could range from "primary care visits for respiratory and cardiac conditions," and asthma to pregnancy complications.

Other studies showed that air pollution may increase the likelihood of lung cancer.

On the other hand, the far fewer studies made on animal urine and its effects showed only minor health problems restricted to pet owners who inhale urine fumes over long periods.

In developed countries, like the Netherlands and the UK -- which are more aware of environmental and health hazards -- horses are still considered an acceptable means of transportation in cities.

In Amsterdam, for example, many tourists love to hire horse-drawn carts to travel the city, while police officers sometimes roam the streets on their graceful beasts, which are larger, and produce more urine and feces, than those in Jakarta.

Many people also consider the smell of animal urine and feces natural, and therefore more acceptable than the smell emitted by motorized vehicles like bajaj or Metromini minibuses.

On top of that, the smell of horse or deer urine and feces at Monas is less revolting than that also prevalent kind derived from humans.

Hence, the argument behind the delman ban is not strong enough for the Central Jakarta municipality to leave 200 people jobless and their families suffering.

So, the stink annoys officials and perhaps some visitors, but is that a good enough reason to cut off people's income?

Don't our city officials have more sense and creativity to solve this stinky problem in a discerning manner without applying such a backwards measure?

The author is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post.

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