J

akarta Governor Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo swore in Fatahillah as the new mayor of West Jakarta and instructed him to fully support the three main programs of expediting the city's revitalization work, repairing damaged public infrastructure and focusing on solving the problem of trash-filled rivers.

Fatahillah, former Central Jakarta deputy mayor, was inaugurated at the Angke low-cost apartments in Tambora and is entrusted to take up the reins of Burhanuddin, who resigned on April 15 to run in the 2014 legislative election.

Burhanuddin was the second city official to resign in favor of an election bid after former city secretary Fadjar Panjaitan.

In his speech, Jokowi called on the new mayor and his officials to focus on the revitalization of the Old Town area, repairing damaged infrastructure such as roads and bridges and cleaning up rivers.

'The revitalization of Old Town should start immediately. Businesspeople in the area should be well informed of the plan, because it will take a long time,' he said.

The city administration is planning to hold a three-week festival in Old Town in August, in collaboration with the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, in a bid to promote the location as a tourist site.

The governor said further that Fatahillah was responsible for repairing roads in West Jakarta.

He told the newly installed mayor to immediately discuss the matter with relevant agencies and set the end of the year as a deadline.

In the last part of his speech, Jokowi told municipality officials to regularly monitor rivers and sewers because almost all rivers flowing through the city were filled with household waste and were heavily polluted.

'We should move the people to be actively involved in sustaining the area's cleanliness, especially from waste, so that no inundation will take place during rainfall,' Jokowi said.

Jokowi expressed confidence that Fatahillah would excel in his new position because he had been aware of the main problems since being municipality secretary in 2009.

Meanwhile, Fatahillah said after his inauguration that he would start mapping and scrutinizing the area's problems with his team.

'I will first map the issues. I haven't set a deadline, but we will start immediately,' he told reporters after the swearing-in ceremony.

He said a clean city was among the main issues he would focus on.

When asked about flooding in Kampung Apung, Fatahillah said he and his team would directly visit the area to observe the actual causes, including mapping which sewers were filled with trash.

The Kampung Apung area is one of the flood-prone areas in West Jakarta.

He said his side would work hard with all stake holders to reach the goals.

Occupants of the area and other residents appeared enthusiastic following the ceremony and many gave a standing ovation to Jokowi and shook hands with him after the ceremony.