You may have noticed that many of Jakarta’s rivers and waterways are relatively clean now (especially compared to their previous conditions, which we would have described as looking like toxic sludge). Most of that credit must go to the Jakarta Sanitation Department and its “Orange Troops”, the cleaners who do the dirty work of cleaning up the muck and waste clogging the capital’s rivers.
The next obvious step to having sanitary waterways in Jakarta is, obviously, to not go back to the old ways of polluting them. For that reason, Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama decided to remind citizens about the stiff fines for littering.
“We can fine [litterers] Rp 500,000 to Rp 5 million. We’re writing a letter to the District Courts to convince them to fine [offenders] the larger amount,” said Ahok, as quoted by Kompas today.
Ahok added that citizens can also help maintain river cleanliness by reporting those who litter to the government and authorities via the QLUE reporting app.
Now that Jakarta finally has a sanitation department that’s actually doing its job, hopefully citizens will be more willing to do their part to keep the city clean by not littering, fine or no fine.
