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Bekasi. When Bekasi was declared one of the country’s cleanest cities in 2010, it seemed the city would finally be able to shake off the “dirty” image it has earned largely because it is home to the Bantar Gebang open landfill.

Bekasi residents were euphoric then, flooding the main roads of the city to welcome the award.

The local government’s efforts, especially those of Bekasi Mayor Mochtar Mohammad, to clean up what was labeled the dirtiest city in 2008, seemed to have paid off.

Before the year ended, though, the celebrations turned sour as Mochtar was declared a suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for bribing officials to win the Adipura Award, leaving a giant stain on the clean city honors.

“Shameful,” said Intan Geni, a resident of Kayuringin subdistrict. “That’s the only appropriate word to describe it. How could we have possibly received the cleanest city award when we have a huge landfill in our backyard?” she said.

Intan said she was never convinced Bekasi deserved the award, citing how they recently found mounds of used condoms in a warehouse at the sports arena across the City Hall.

“So what kind of cleanliness are we talking about here? Is it only sweeping the main roads?” she asked.

The government, she added, should not have pursued the award. “No need for that kind of recognition,” she said. “We got the award but became known as a corrupt city, so what’s the point?”

After Mochtar was declared a suspect, the main roads of Bekasi, especially city hall areas, were filled with banners with slogans such as “Bekasi People Will Defend Adipura Because It’s The People’s Tears and Effort.”

However, around the Bantar Gebang landfill, the final dumping site for waste from Jakarta and its satellite cities, it was quiet. There were no protests to the bribery allegations.

“I don’t know which area got the Adipura, maybe it’s other subdistricts. There’s no way we can get the Adipura here [in Bantar Gebang],” said a woman who preferred to be called Teteh Sum, who lives just a few meters from the landfill.

“It could never be clean here, with [garbage] trucks running around like that. Just look at the fluids from the waste dripping from the trucks, sometimes their load also falls out.”

Aside from the mammoth landfill, Bekasi is home to several heavy-polluting industrial estates and the Citarum River — the world’s dirtiest, according to the Asian Development Bank.

Mochtar has been arrested and charged with ordering city officials to bribe selection committee members deciding on the winners of the award.

Despite all this, Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta says he was standing by his decision to give Bekasi the award, maintaining the city met the minimum requirements to be among the cleanest cities in Indonesia.

In addition, Gusti said the award was an incentive for the city’s efforts to turn waste into energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Berry Nahdian Furqon, executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said this controversy showed that the award had not managed to increase awareness among local governments of what a greener administration is.

“We have not seen any improvements, the Adipura still hasn’t triggered changes in local administrations,” Berry said.

“These cities are looking for Adipura just because if they earned it, it would make it easier for them to get more financial allocations, strengthening their bargaining position. Well, good boys always get more attention.”

But the ministry says the Adipura assessment will be stricter in the future and two more qualifications — on water and air pollution — will be added.

“Regions which have not passed the first phase will be automatically eliminated, so we’d need to assess fewer regions,” said Masnellyarti Hilman, deputy minister for natural resources conservation enhancement and environmental degradation control at the Ministry of Environment. “Second, if previously, there were just spot-checks, this time, we will monitor the whole area.”

She added that visits of the Adipura assessment team would in the future be unannounced.

The award evaluation process will involve a field examination team, a technical team, a steering committee and an assessment board — which will include an eminent person — to make recommendations, she said.

The final decision would still be made by the environment minister.