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fter reports of residents vandalizing or stealing property from integrated public parks, the Jakarta administration has ordered its subdistrict heads to repair their broken facilities and increase the parks'€™ security.

Jakarta Family Planning, Women'€™s and Community Agency head Dien Emmawati said that she received reports that residents were taking advantage of the child-friendly public spaces (RPTRA) by using water from the parks to wash their vehicles, while some also vandalized and stole property from the public spaces.

'€œWe will give three months to subdistrict heads to increase security and repair damaged RPTRA, or else they will be demoted. Such actions are possible because of the negligence of subdistrict heads,'€ she said Wednesday at City Hall.

Dien said that the public space in Kembangan in West Jakarta had been vandalized by locals, while another in Cideng in Central Jakarta was misused by residents who used water from the RPTRA to wash their cars.

The agency is currently listing all RPTRAs that are damaged or problematic and it had ordered subdistrict heads to make positive changes.

The former Health Agency head explained that the city administration had hired locals to maintain security and order in the RPTRAs. Each RPTRA is guarded by six locals who take turns to safeguard the space. Dien further said that the city administration was currently evaluating its RPTRA management and security system in order to make improvements.

'€œSubdistrict heads should pay attention to all things going on in their areas, including how residents are using RPTRAs,'€ she said.

Currently there are 23 RPTRAs in Jakarta, all of which were developed by private companies as part of their corporate social responsibility. The first public park was launched in 2015 in Sungai Bambu, North Jakarta. It was initiated by Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama'€™s wife Veronica Tan.

Generally, an RPTRA is equipped with a playground, futsal court, assembly room, library, herbal garden and restroom.

Separately, Ahok reminded subdistrict heads that the integrated child-friendly public space was a facility where families in a neighborhood could gather and share their problems with one another. Ahok said that many subdistrict heads still did not understand the function of RPTRAs.

Upon hearing that the public spaces were vandalized and misused by residents, Ahok became furious and called all subdistrict heads to City Hall. He said that he had also received reports that homes near RPTRAs also stole electricity from the parks.

'€œMisuse of the RPTRA is the subdistrict head'€™s responsibility. If they have no knowledge of what is going on in their areas, they should not be subdistrict heads,'€ Ahok told his subordinates.

He demanded subdistrict heads take better care of the RPTRAs or face demotion.

Separately, Cideng subdistrict head Faozi said that he monitored the RPTRA in his area through CCTV, which he can access via smartphone. However, he said that he had never found residents misusing the public space.

'€œThe gate to the RPTRA was broken several weeks ago but we quickly repaired it. There are also puddles in the futsal field when it rains, but we are trying to fix this by developing biopori holes,'€ Faozi said over the phone.