Surabaya, E Java (Antaranews Jatim) - Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini claims air temperature in the East Java provincial capital has declined by up to 2°C thanks to the development of many city parks and forests.
Before the development of city parks and forests, the city's air temperature ranged from 34 to 36°C, she said while addressing a pre forum session of international standard city congress "United Cities and Local Government" (UCLG) of Asia and the Pacific (Aspac) held at Dyandra Convention Hall here on Wednesday (Sept 12).
"But now the air temperature in Surabaya has declined by 2°C after we built many city parks and forests, coupled with other environmental programs including car-free day," she noted.
The mayor said the Surabaya administration built 10 to 20 parks in different places in the city every year, not to mention city forest in two areas and 10-15 sports fields in various locations in the city.
"We are also in the process of developing the first mangrove garden in Indonesia. We also continue to revitalize rivers in such a way that this activity has had an impact on the reduction of air temperature in Surabaya," she said.
The mayor further said nearly 50 percent of the city's territory is made up of kampongs.
She said in the early days of her term of office as Surabaya mayor the kampongs were identical to slums where many children did not attend school and many communicable diseases were found.
"But the kanpongs have changed now. As a matter of fact, they serve as our largest potentials because they are now clean and can manage garbage on their own. Residents also have planted trees in their respective kampongs so that the number of diseases in the kampongs can be reduced drastically," she said. (*)
