One of the main frustrations about living in Jakarta is that it can sometimes feel like the city is standing still, if not moving backwards. But we can promise you, progress is in fact being made in many areas. One of those is sanitation. Yes, there are still innumerable problems with trash and pollution in the city, but as we’ve pointed out before, the capital’s sanitation department, particularly their “pasukan orange” (orange troops), have made impressive progress in cleaning up Jakarta’s waterways recently.
A photo posted by Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama on his Instagram feed yesterday shows just how much progress has been made in one area of the capital with this shockingly beautiful image:
“Beautiful as a painting. Bravo #PasukanOrange”
The image was originally posted on the Instagram account of the Jakarta Sanitation Department (@dinaskebersihandki) but went viral after Ahok reposted it, accruing over 18,000 likes since it was posted yesterday.
Some of you may recognize the body of water in the picture. It’s a reservoir located in Melati, Tanah Abang, near Grand Indonesia and Thamrin City, long known for its black fetid waters and offensive odor. Several people in the comments on Ahok’s instagram said they lived in the area and were thankful to have the waters clean so they didn’t have to deal with the smell everytime they went by.
The head of public relations for the Sanitation Department, Yogi Ikhwan, told Kompas the reservoir had gotten a major cleaning as part of JEDI (Jakarta Emergency Dredging Initiative) and that there are workers assigned to clean garbage from its waters every single day.
This photo might just show one tiny part of Jakarta that’s been cleaned up, but hopefully it represents something much bigger. Once Jakartans really start to believe their city can become beautiful again, maybe they will try that much harder to make it happen.
