Surabaya is becoming more and more famous all over the world as one of the world’s greenest, cleanest and most beautiful cities.
By
AGNES SWETTA PANDIA
·6 minutes read
Kompas/Bahana Patria Gupta
Wonorejo seed farm worker Erik gathers on Thursday (28/9) seedlings for planting in other parks in Surabaya. The Wonorejo seed farm, a popular eco-tourism destination, is a nursery that produces seeds and seedlings for all parks in the East Java capital.
Surabaya is becoming more and more famous around the world, having been deemed one of the world’s greenest, cleanest and most beautiful cities. The Surabaya city administration’s hard work in cooperating with residents to manage the environment, especially at the neighborhood level, has inspired many city managers all over the world.
At first, it was not easy to encourage the residents of Surabaya to be more aware of the cleanliness of their neighborhoods. The city administration created numerous initiatives to improve people’s hygiene awareness.
As it turns out, the most effective way was by approaching housewives through the Family Welfare Movement (PKK) at the neighborhood unit (RT) level. In addition, the city has also worked with local youth organizations called Karang Taruna to instill a spirit of love for the environment among schoolchildren.
At first, the movement merely involved putting garbage in garbage cans. The practice of putting household waste into plastic bags and placing it in front of homes was introduced. After the program turned out to be a success, the city administration encouraged people to begin sorting household waste and recycling it to make handicrafts, while organic waste was turned into compost.
Numerous hygiene and green contests between neighborhoods at the city level have been held since 2010. The program also motivates people to better manage their neighborhoods.
The effort Surabaya residents have given toward environmental and neighborhood management has transformed the face of the 350-square-kilometer city to become cleaner and greener. Green spaces are available not only on major thoroughfares but on every corner of the city. Global agencies have appreciated this, including through the United Nations’ (UN) Global Green City Award 2017.
This gesture of international recognition in the Global Green City category was received by Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini at the 12th Global Forum on Human Settlements (GFHS) & Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements Awards (SCAHSA) at the UN headquarters in New York on October 30.
The UN deemed that Surabaya had cleaner air, reduced floods, good distribution of clean water, a decreased volume of waste and more trees.
The award given to the city with 147 parks was the fruit of the Surabaya people’s hard work to clean the city, manage its slums, create more open green spaces and public spaces and add more pedestrian walkways. Surabaya has been named one of the world’s clean and green cities. It was among the global top three in the Global Green City category, alongside Mannheim in Germany and Zhejiang province in China.
In the GFHS forum, Risma – as Tri Rismaharini is often called – explained several of her administration’s programs and actions to make the city more comfortable and its residents more prosperous. From recycling waste, local housewives can earn a living. “Not just from plastics or used bottles, even garlic skins can be turned into beautiful handicrafts,” she said.
A number of housewives in Jambangan create colorful synthetic flowers from garlic and shallot skins. To make them usable as crafting material, the skin is peeled in certain way to keep it intact and easy to process.
Economic heroes
At the GFHS forum, attended by governors, mayors, companies and individuals from a number of countries, Risma explained Surabaya’s successful Economic Heroes program. The program empowers women in local neighbourhoods by giving them training in line with their skills and helping them to access the market.
At the beginning, the program targeted women from poor families, former sex workers and victims of domestic violence. As time went by, many more women joined in the training and became successful. Some of them are marketing their products online.
“In order to improve the local economy, Surabaya has initiated a women empowerment program. Now, the program has been expanded to include youth organizations,” she said.
The women empowerment program in Surabaya has developed rapidly because of its dedicated training sessions that guide local women through the process of establishing businesses and entering the market. The city administration also reorganizes the city’s slums, which have been notorious for their high crime rates.
“The city works to improve infrastructure, sanitation and slums, including fishing neighborhoods on the shores of Kenjeran. We also work together with the people,” Risma said.
Nowadays, with all parts of Surabaya being improved, transport in the city has also improved through the presence of the north-south and east-west ringroads, including on the 10-kilometer Jl. Ir Soekarno or the middle east ring road (MERR). These roads have improved the accessibility of the city’s districts. As a result, no one feels as if they are living on the city’s outskirts.
Strategies and innovations
Risma also discussed several other initiatives, including the city’s transportation and energy production at the city’s landfill in Benowo. She also spoke about the strategies and innovations that Surabaya implemented in the year following its adoption of the 2016 Quito New Urban Agenda.
While in New York, Risma also visited the Mayor’s Office of Tech+Innovation and met with the office’s chief technology officer Miguel Gamino to talk about potential cooperation between Surabaya and New York, especially regarding the smart city concept.
Currently, the Surabaya city administration feels that it needs to utilize information technology for public services, all aspects of governance and to develop startups involving human resources.
According to Gamino, three of New York’s flagship programs are the use of Internet of Things (IoT) in public services, NYCxChallenges, a talent pool program where people can take part in solving urban problems using digital technologies, and the development of digital regulation as a legal basis to make the internet a safe place for people.
During the occasion, New York City representative Jeff Merritt said that New York was named the world’s best smart city by the Smart City Expo World Congress, which included representatives from 600 global cities, in 2016. “Surabaya is surely New York’s equal,” Jeff said after listening to Risma’s explanations of Surabaya’s latest changes. Surabaya’s advantage over other Indonesian cities, said Risma, who was accompanied by Indonesian consul general in New York Abdul Kadir Jailani, was the city administration’s implementation of e-government, e-procurement and online one-stop integrated services. Earlier this year, the city also began to operate its Command Center 112 to monitor the city’s activities and respond to citizens’ problems properly in real time around the clock.
More and more open green spaces are being created to ensure a healthy environment and people’s welfare. Nevertheless, awards are not the goal. More important are the people who voluntarily protect and manage the city’s environment, ensuring that future generations can enjoy the comfort of Surabaya.
