Warakas residents' hard work pays off

Agnes Winarti , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 09/03/2008 10:44 AM | City

Notorious in the 1990s as one of the city's worst drug dealing hubs, Warakas, North Jakarta, is working to restore its image as an organized and green neighborhood.

"We were fed up and offended by people calling our place a drug-dealers' den," 60-year-old Warakas resident Tasimun Mudjiarto said recently.

"Even taxi drivers used to refuse to take passengers to this neighborhood," said Tasimun, acknowledging that drug dealers and users were once found in every community unit (RW) in Warakas.

The 104-hectare Warakas district has a total 14 RW, 183 neighborhood units (RT) and some 62,000 residents -- most of whom work as porters (at Tanjung Priok Port) and as ojek (motor cycle taxi) drivers.

"At that time (in the 1990s) there were two or three big-shot drug dealers who lived here," said Tasimun, a resident who recently helped establish the Kembang Mawar Foundation.

Since 2000, Tasimun and other Warakas residents have been making efforts to revive the neighborhood spirit through a re-greening and cleanliness program.

"I was thinking there must be something we could be proud of," Tasimun said, while adding his biggest obsession was to make all Warakas community units greener.

"We started out with a massive fight against the drug dealers in this area.

"Then, we began reorganizing our public facilities, such as our market. And now we are doing this," Tasimun said.

The Kembang Mawar resident group are currently focussing on tree planting, making compost fertilizer from domestic waste, and recycling inorganic waste into "trash fashion" products. About 80 percent of the RW in Warakas have become involved in this green program.

"Having a greener environment like this proves that one does not have to be rich to live comfortably," he said with pride.

The activities also benefited young people who were once drug abusers -- who were now active in working to improve their neighborhood, Tasimun said.

The coordinator of Rumah Kompos (Compost House), Wasdiman, said when he started the composting program in 2000, his first followers were five young people from the local Karang Taruna (youth organization).

"The composting program provides jobless young people with positive activities, such as collecting organic waste from residents," Wastiman said.

Every household currently contributes between one and two kilograms of organic waste per week, which can produce up to a total of 100 kilograms of compost per RW, per month.

Most of the compost is used by residents themselves, to fertilize pot plants, while a small portion is sold at Rp 5,000 per package.

"This green initiative used to be ignored by many residents, but many have now changed," Wastiman said.

It's success has been thanks to consistent persuasion through social activities such as arisan (regular group meetings) and pengajian (Koran reading group).

Karang Taruna member Budi, 21, who also participated in the program, said he "used to feel irritated by elders' instructions to separate organic and inorganic waste".

"But not anymore," Budi said, listing some of the achievements his neighborhood had attained.

"In 2000, RT 06 was given an award by the North Jakarta mayor, and two years ago we also got fourth place in the Jakarta administration's Green and Clean campaign."

Warakas' RW 11 and RW 13 are currently two of the five RWs representing North Jakarta in the 2008 Green and Clean competition.

Comments (0) | Post comment

A | A | A |