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Central Jakarta was recognized as the cleanest municipality in the country, while the four others in the capital received environmental awards from Adipura, an environmental recognition given to cities and municipalities by the national government.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said on Friday that he was proud that Jakarta’s five municipalities received Adipura environment awards for being the cleanest in the category of metropolitan city. “I feel proud because my request to the municipalities were met. Last year only four of Jakarta’s municipalities received an Adipura,” Fauzi said. All but the East Jakarta municipality won an award last year.

Peni Susanti, the head of the Jakarta Environment Management Board, said that the Adipura has grown since 2002.

“In 2002 there were 59 cities involved, now there are 126, while the number of towns has increased to 382,” she said. “There are now more cities winning the award.”

Peni said that Adipura’s monitoring team in Jakarta included officials from the city administration and the State Ministry for the Environment as well as community organizations like universities, nongovernmental groups and the mass media.

“The monitoring of Adipura cities were conducted in October-November 2008, March-April 2009 with the last verification in April-May 2009,” Peni said.

She added that next year, the central government would tighten the evaluation standards for Adipura because categories for assessment would include garbage management and city air quality as outlined in the city’s regulations. She also said that Central Jakarta had the highest points out of 126 cities for this year’s Adipura award with 73.93 points, while South Jakarta came fourth with 73.50 points, North Jakarta fifth with 73.26 points, and West Jakarta sixth with 73.06.

Jakarta also received other awards like the Best Location market category for Bendungan Hilir market in Central Jakarta, Pasar Dutamas in West Jakarta and Pasar Sunter Hijau in North Jakarta.

In addition, Jakarta received the Best Location city park category for Situ Lembang city park in Central Jakarta and Kampung Sawah park in West Jakarta.

Fauzi said that the city should be proud because one of its citizens, Irwansyah Idrus, who lives in Gambir, Central Jakarta, also received a Kalpataru, an award for an individual who has dedicated their life to environment issues.

“He received the Kalpataru for nurturing the environment. He showed outstanding achievements in environment sustainable management,” Fauzi said.

He said that the awards should encourage city administration work units to increase the quality of Jakarta’s environment, adding that the catchphrase “clean culture” must be taken up by Jakarta’s citizens because their involvement was essential. Fauzi also asked the five mayors to keep up the good work and to maximize its service to the people.

The mayors are Sylviana Murni of Central Jakarta, Syahrul Effendy of South Jakarta, Bambang Sugiyono from North Jakarta, Djoko Ramadhan of West Jakarta and Mardhani of East Jakarta. After the five mayors received their trophies, they returned to their municipal cities riding on flower-bedecked floats.