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fter failing to win any Adipura environmental awards for clean and green cities last year, Jakarta turned its image around enough to see the award return this year to four municipalities.

Of all five municipalities, only West Jakarta failed to win the award, winning instead the second-best Adipura plate, in the metropolitan city category. The category includes cities with a population of more than 1 million.

The Adipura awards were presented by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the World Environmental Day ceremony at the State Palace on Tuesday. In addition to the trophies, the province of DKI Jakarta was awarded “best environmental status” along with West Sumatra and East Java.

In 2010, all five Jakarta municipalities won Adipura awards. Jakarta’s failure to win the award last year came amid the Environment Ministry’s efforts to restore the award’s image after it was tarnished by graft allegations surrounding Bekasi’s Adipura award in 2010.

Tauchid Tjakra Amidjaya, city head of the Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD), said that the ministry had set tougher standards last year, catching Jakarta municipalities unprepared.

“This year, we have been working very hard to win the trophies again and we succeded.”

According to Tauchid, the Adipura assessment was conducted between November and April, with inspectors checking dozens of locations in each city. The agency chief said that the city had made significant progress in sanitation, which he believed was a major factor in winning the award.

Governor Fauzi Bowo said he was proud of this year’s result, but expected his subordinates to work even harder next year.

“Next year, we will improve waste management. We will operate a trash bank in each subdistrict,” Fauzi said, refering to the communal waste management centers developed by numerous communities across the city. At some of the trash banks that have already been established, residents collect and sort organic and non-organic waste. Organic waste is later processed into compost and non-organic waste is reused or recycled for sale.

In others, trash banks go as far as to buy pre-sorted garbage from residents, luring more people into joining a waste management program. Highly prized waste includes newspaper, plastic, paper, glass bottles and plastic containers.

Separately, Ubaidillah, chairman of the Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), criticized the award as merely ceremonial. “The awards have no meaning whatsoever, and are totally insubstantial. The real conditions in Jakarta are far from sanitary, let alone clean.”

The Adipura award was first launched in 1986. The award fell into hiatus after the post-Soeharto reform era, as the award was linked to evictions in urban areas during the New Order. Urban residents were also skeptical when their cities, which they deemed unsanitary, won the awards.

— JP/Andreas D. Arditya