Jakarta, Jan (Antara) - Surabaya City has earned the Adipura Kencana 2018, an award dedicated to a city that shows good performance of sustainable environmental management, from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.
During the award ceremony in Jakarta on Monday, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya explained that the assessment for the candidates was carried out strictly based on solid waste management as well as environmental governance and its sustainability.
In addition to Adipura Kencana, which is the highest award earned by Surabaya City, the government has also presented 119 Adipura awards, 10 Adipura certificates, five Adipura plaques, as well as Waste Reduction Performance awards for 11 regencies/cities.
Those awards are expected to encourage all regencies and cities in the country to achieve three targets in environmental management.
First, according to Law No.18 of 2008 concerning Waste Management, starting from 2018, every regional government must carry out the obligation to close the final processing site, which still uses open dumping system, and replace it with sanitary landfill system or at least a controlled landfill system.
Second, the regional government has to meet the national waste management target in accordance with Presidential Regulation No.97 of 2017 concerning National Policies and Strategies for Household Waste Management and Household Waste.
Adipura award program is considered as an important part of actualization and regional leadership in an effort to achieve the target of reducing waste by 30 percent and handling 70 percent of waste by 2025, so that by 2025 all household waste and household-like garbage are fully managed.
"This means that there would be no more garbage left," Nurbaya remarked.
Third, the regional government is encouraged to implement integrated waste management system, starting from upstream to downstream, in each regency/city.
Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini revealed that keeping her city clean was not just intended to receive such appreciation, but it was her effort to not feel ashamed if the "face" of the city was dirty.
Therefore, she created some waste processing sites in public space to manage the environment clean, such as in markets and hospitals.
Surabaya City Government also initiated an innovation from waste to support public services and health by installing a one-kilometer jogging track made of unused flip-flops.
Another creation that utilizes waste to be useful product is chair from used tires.
People in Surabaya are continuously encouraged to manage waste into something useful, to prevent lots of garbage from only being disposed.
According to Rismaharini, good waste management has also resulted in a decrease in illness or health problems, such as dengue fever, diarrhea, and respiratory infections.
"Actually, we will not only be clean but our lives will also be healthy," she noted. (*)
Surabaya Earns "Adipura" Award for Environmental Management
Selasa, 15 Januari 2019 5:16 WIB