T

hree of Jakarta'€™s five municipalities have won Adipura environmental awards for cleanliness and green awareness.

This year'€™s achievement, however, was a step back as the capital won four awards last year.

The three municipalities, namely East Jakarta, South Jakarta and Central Jakarta, have been listed among the country'€™s greenest and cleanest areas. North Jakarta, a winner last year, was not on the list, while West Jakarta this time won the second-best Adipura plate.

Situlembang park in Central Jakarta has been listed among the best city parks, while Bantar Gebang landfill '€” serving the capital, located in Bekasi, West Java '€” one of the best landfills.

The Adipura awards were presented by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the State Palace on Monday.

Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo appreciated the awards while emphasizing that earning the awards was not the ultimate goal.

'€œWe wanted to have clean and green areas, not to win awards but to improve the quality of the residents'€™ lives ,'€ Jokowi told reporters at City Hall after receiving the awards.

Last year, only West Jakarta failed to win the Adipura award and won the Adipura plate in the metropolitan city category. The category includes cities with a population of more than 1 million. In addition to the trophies, the province of DKI Jakarta was awarded '€œbest environmental status'€ along with West Sumatra and East Java.

Jokowi pointed out that his administration had been keen to increase green and public spaces in the capital.

'€œI haven'€™t set a particular target but I do want to create as much green space as possible. We'€™ll clean up and turn Pluit Dam [North Jakarta] into a green space next month and Ria Rio Dam [East Jakarta] in September,'€ he said.

Jokowi reiterated the city'€™s plan to buy idle land owned by private companies and turn it into open spaces for the public. He added that he wanted to plant as many trees as possible and called on residents to take part in maintaining public spaces.

Separately, Jakarta Sanitation Agency head Unu Nurdin acknowledged that a number of slum areas had hindered West Jakarta and North Jakarta from earning the Adipura awards.

'€œThere are still many slum areas in West and North Jakarta, such as in Grogol, Petamburan, Cilincing, Luar Batang, Cakung, Kapuk,'€ he said.

Unu said that the agency had tried its best to provide the facilities to keep the city clean.

'€œWe have provided garbage trucks and bins. What we also need is the residents'€™ participation in maintaining their areas'€™ cleanliness,'€ he said.

In 2010, all five Jakarta municipalities won Adipura awards. Jakarta'€™s failure to win the award in 2011 came amid the Environment Ministry'€™s efforts to restore the award'€™s image after it was tarnished by graft allegations surrounding Bekasi'€™s Adipura award in 2010.

The Adipura award was first launched in 1986. The award fell into hiatus after the post-Soeharto reform era, as the award was linked to evictions in urban areas during the New Order. Urban residents were also skeptical when their municipalities, which they deemed unsanitary, won the awards.

Neighboring Tangerang municipality won an Adipura Kencana award, the third of such prizes, for its hard work after being labeled as one of the dirtiest cities by the environmental ministry in 2006.

'€œWe are not seeking the award because our goal is to build a society with good sanitation, and a clean and healthy lifestyle,'€ Mayor Wahidin Halim said before going on a parade to show off the award.