Cleaning Bali Adipura Award

Recently, Singaraja achieved the Adipura trophy in the medium city category, an award given to a city which can keep its cleanliness and tidiness. Singaraja is not the only city in Bali that got the trophy. However, this achievement is a great success and the Singaraja citizens should be proud of it. The trophy was given by Indonesia president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to the Buleleng regent, Gede Wardana, M.Si in Jakarta. The award proved that Singaraja people can keep the cleanliness of the environment. Some citizens gave their comment about the award and also the cleanliness and tidiness of Singaraja.

Yuli in Banjar jawa said that she liked the condition of Singaraja at this time. “The Buleleng government especially the Cleaning and Gardening Department has been doing good job for the past five years. Their staff cleaning the roads three times a day, watering the garden, planting various kinds of trees and flowers and look at Taman Kota now and compare it to the condition of it when it was used to be Ngurah Rai yard. Singaraja, now, becomes more beautiful and cleaner. In conclusion, two thumbs up for the Cleaning and Gardening Department of Buleleng” Kadek Suryawan in Kaliuntu also gave the same comment about the cleanliness in Singaraja nowadays.

He gave examples in the improvement of the garden built in the borders of the roads such as on Kartini Street, Udayana Street, and Dewi Sartika Street. “I like the garden now, my friends and I usually gathered on Kartini Street in the afternoons and we just sit on the garden, chatting, till nights come. It is very cool up there.” However, not all of the people in Singaraja are happy with Adipura Trophy gained by Singaraja because Komang Suwira in Kampung Baru said that there are still problems in cleaning the city. He referred to the garbage that littering the river at the old bridge in Kampung Tinggi.

The river is one of big rivers in Buleleng headed directly to Buleleng Harbor. The garbage has corked the river and gave the passersby a not-so-beautiful-view-to-look. The garbage is thrown away by the people who live next to the river. They don’t care of the cleanliness of the river and they just throw their garbage into the river. “Maybe, Buleleng government should conduct specific education to the people about the importance of river sanitation so they will stop their activity of littering the river and instead of throwing the garbage into the river, they can use the trash bin provided by the government”.

Komang also gave comment about the trash container on Surapati Street, in Kubujati. He suggested the government to change the trash container at that place to a bigger one so the garbage can be completely contained in its place and not littering the road due to the small capacity of the container. Problems of sanitation and cleanliness in Singaraja not only happen in the roads and river. It is also experienced by people who visit Anyar Market. The sanitation of the market at this time is very bad especially during June to July when Hindus in Bali celebrate many great holy days such as Galungan, Purnama (full moon), and Kuningan.

The one and only path in the central of the market where people can park their motorbikes is very dirty filled with litters such as fruits wrappers, scraps, rotten vegetables, and plastics. There is only one trash container in the market and it seems that people in the market don’t mind of throwing the garbage to that container, moreover it is already overloaded that it cannot hold more garbage.

I don’t know why there are no staffs of cleaning department at the market do their work. The sellers at Anyar Market said that they paid some money to the market management for cleaning retribution but they never see the advantage of the money. “There are no people at this market willing to clean the market because they think that it is the responsibility of the market management. If it is going on and on then I believe this market will be a huge trash container in the central of the city” one of the sellers said to me. I didn’t reply to her prediction but in my heart I agreed with what she said. I asked to myself, if it is so, was Singaraja really desering the  Adipura Trophy?