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Editorial: East Jakarta failure
If East Jakarta Mayor Koesman A
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If East Jakarta Mayor Koesman A. Halim sang the line "How can I tell her about you, girl, please tell me what to do" from legend Lobo's song How can I tell her, perhaps the first thing to come into his mind would be the grim face of Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo.
What would have been his answer, when the governor asked him why his was the sole municipality of five in the capital city that was not awarded as one of the top six cleanest and greenest metropolitan cities in Indonesia?
Mayor Koesman, whose term will soon expire, certainly wishes to end his service in the city with a memorable achievement, but he should blame his own inability to win the award, not other officials. Although many doubt the objectiveness of the award selection, bureaucrats working in the regions still highly regard the prize.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday awarded the annual Adipura environmental award to 94 winners of 375 participating cities and regencies across the country. In the metropolitan city category, South Sumatra's Palembang was elected as the first winner. It was followed by South Jakarta, West Jakarta, East Java's Surabaya, North Jakarta and Central Jakarta. During the ceremony, the President also awarded the Kalpataru award for environmental activists.
"We received five awards last year, and only four this year, but that's OK," the governor commented on Thursday.
It is understandable that Governor Fauzi Bowo is disappointed. However, there are still many things he can do to improve the city environment.
Poor sanitation and environmental issues would not have been the main reasons behind East Jakarta's failing, as all five of the city's municipalities suffer from the same problems.
While congratulating the four mayors for their achievements, we also remind them they still have much to do -- their municipalities are still homes to killer diseases, including dengue fever, diarrhea, bird flu and respiratory illnesses.
North Jakarta has the highest number of dengue fever and diarrhea cases, proving that the municipality needs to give more attention to its poor sanitation.
The diseases are evidence for a lack of public awareness and infrastructure for improving sanitation.
This year, thousands were infected with dengue, and dozens died from the disease as officials failed to successfully implement preventative programs and residents failed to do their bit in stopping mosquito breeding.
The city's inadequate drainage system has been worsened by garbage thrown into canals, leading to floods during the rainy season, and providing breeding nests for Aedes Agepty mosquitoes -- carriers of the dengue fever virus.
Neither does Jakarta have an integrated facility for human waste management. The absence of such facilities force many Jakartans to dump human waste into unsanitary septic tanks or rivers. As a result, 70 percent of groundwater in the capital is contaminated by E Coli bacteria, which causes diarrhea.
The administration has also not been successful in addressing air pollution -- Jakarta is the third worst city in the world after Mexico City and Bangkok -- despite having enacted a bylaw on air pollution control in 2002.
The city administration failed to consistently enforce a number of rulings in the bylaw, including obligatory emission checks for all motorized vehicles, and the obligatory use of natural gas for all public transportations.
A campaign to encourage motorists to shift to public transportation has similarly floundered because the TransJakarta busway, which is expected to become the backbone for city transportation, remains unreliable and inconvenient.
Last but not least, the administration needs to find a way to expand green and open spaces by at least 13.94 percent from some 650 square kilometers of Jakarta's total territory. Currently, less than 9 percent of the city is green space.
A 30 percent green space coverage would help the city ease air pollution, conduct water conservation and reduce annual flooding in the city.
The city authorities need to work harder and more effectively not only to win Adipura awards next year but, most importantly, to improve quality of life in the city.
