Tune Your Radios to a Greener Jakarta

Jakarta Globe, Elisabeth Oktofani, April 04, 2010

A Green Radio initiative has planted 7,000 trees in Gunung Gede Pangrango park. (Photo courtesy of Green Radio)

For those stuck twirling the dial during smoggy commutes, Green Radio is a breath of fresh air for those who like their news mixed with a daily dose of environmental responsibility.

Broadcasting on 89.2-FM, Green Radio is the only news station in Jakarta whose main focus is educating listeners about the big and small changes they can make to benefit the environment.

“Green Radio was inspired by the floods in 2007 that left more than 70 percent of the Jakarta area drowned,” said Santosa, the station’s managing director. “There must be something wrong with the environment, so one day I came up with an idea to change our previous station, Radio Utan Kayu, which focused on more general issues, to Green Radio.”

The station’s tag line is “The eco-lifestyle of Jakarta,” and Santosa said more than 200,000 people tune in daily across Greater Jakarta to listen to news, environmental reports and discussions.

And the small station’s influence extends beyond the reach of its radio transmitters. Besides broadcasting a message urging environmental consciousness, Green Radio has also spearheaded programs aimed at getting their audience actively involved. “Green Radio has on-air activities and also off-air activities because we want to encourage the public, through our listeners, to get involved to save the planet and help to avoid floods in Jakarta such as the 2007 flood,” Santosa said.

And it isn’t all just talk. From day one, Green Radio has used solar panels to power its 18-hour broadcast day.

“I decided to use solar panels because they are very environmentally friendly and use an unlimited natural resource: the sun,” Santosa said.

So far, Green Radio has organized three initiatives: the Friends of the Forest tree adoption campaign at Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park, a clean-up of the area around Monas in June and a biopore creation workshop. Biopores are small holes drilled in the ground to decrease flooding.

Green Radio collaborates with private sector and government organizations as well as members of its audience, Santosa said, adding that the station has had more than 2000 individual participants take part in its greening programs.

Through its Friends of the Forest adoption program, individuals and organizations donate Rp 108,000 ($12) to have a tree planted in a deforested area in Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park in West Java. Green Radio has collected enough money to plant 7,031 trees in a 10-hectare area over the last 18 months, decreasing soil erosion at the farms that line the park’s borders.

“We’ve already got 15 big organizations and 300 individual adopters,” Santosa said. The program was created in partnership with the park and Conservation International Indonesia.

He added that the program was also helping reclaim parts of the forest from local farmers who use the park to plant crops, and trains those farmers for new careers in eco-tourism. At a cost of Rp 290,000 per person for two days and one night, the tour provides lodgings in a campground or tree house, five meals, guides, porters and the planting of a tree.

“The income goes to local farmers who help us organize the eco-tours. They prepare the food and act as forest guides and porters.” Santosa said, adding that some farmers were also given goats, rabbits and honeybees to breed.

In addition to Friends of the Forest, Green Radio has also developed a biopore program, active since July 2009.

“The biopore program is a regular training program that teaches people how to make small holes [in the ground] for water absorption. They can absorb more water in the rainy season and also can be used to produce compost.” Santosa said.

Each biopore is designed with a 10-centimeter opening and with a depth of one meter.

Through partnership with the Body Shop retail chain and Mall Ciputra, Green Radio’s program has been responsible for the creation of 1,500 biopores across Jakarta.

“We are working together with these caring communities to help reach the government’s goal of creating one million biopores,” Santosa said. “Hopefully, these biopores will help us to avoid another big flood like the Jakarta flood in 2007.”

Red Cross launches cleanups to help prevent more floods

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 05/10/2008 10:34 AM

The Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) launched a neighborhood cleanup campaign Thursday in a bid to highlight the threat of flooding in several parts of the city.

The campaign in Petamburan, Central Jakarta, is the first in a planned series of nationwide campaigns. The area is notoriously prone to flooding.

Hundreds of local residents and students from schools in the neighborhood took part in cleaning out gutters, digging biopore holes and distributing tree seedlings, hygiene products and baby kits.

PMI volunteers supervised the cleanup, which took in private homes, public facilities and streets. The PMI also provided 10 garbage receptacles for sorting organic and inorganic waste.

PMI secretary-general, Iyang D. Sukandar, said several sponsors had provided support for the activities, including the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the German Red Cross and the Dutch Red Cross.

"The Agriculture Ministry provided us with the seedlings, and their distribution is part of our effort to curb the effects of global warming," he said.

"Cleaning up the environment and making biopores are also important in helping us adapt to the changing climate," he said.

Iyang said the campaign was conducted to commemorate the 145th anniversary of the World Red Cross Red Crescent Day on May 8.

Agus Surono, head of the Petamburan neighborhood unit, said the PMI's efforts were laudable because they helped raise awareness of the annual flood threat.

"The communities here need to work together with the PMI on a more regular basis," he said.

PMI press officer Aulia Arriani said the PMI usually dealt with disaster relief management, so preventive activities like this were very important.

"This kind of activity promotes community participation in preparing for disasters. We can also educate people and recruit more volunteers from local communities," she said.

She said the PMI also gave free health checks and blood-type tests.

"The blood-type tests are very useful for us to prepare a list of potential blood donors. We have about 250 candidates from this area," she said.(uwi)

Administration tells residents to dig in

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration has requested the public dig one million biopores around homes and office buildings, to help the city combat floods.

Head of Jakarta's Environmental Management Agency, Budirama Natakusumah, told reporters Wednesday the city administration would launch a biopore program Saturday at Soemantri Brojonegoro youth center in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

A biopore is an organic waste disposal system which serves the dual purpose of allowing water to seep into the ground more easily.

They can be made simply using a specially designed hand-operated iron bore which drills into the ground, and creates a 1 meter-deep hole with a diameter of between 10 and 30 centimeters.

The hole can be used to dispose of organic waste such as leftover chicken bones, rotten vegetables or fallen leaves.

The buried waste attracts ants, worms and a variety of underground fauna which turn the garbage into compost. Animals may also create tunnels to access the waste which in turn allows rainwater to be absorbed into groundwater more easily.

"This is society's best tool to help the city combat flooding," Budirama said.

"The holes are very easy to make since one tool can be shared by hundreds of households," he said, adding that the tools would be distributed to some 200 community unit chiefs during Saturday's event.

The event will involve several non-government organizations and university students who will assist local communities to make and maintain the biopores.

The technique was first made public by Kamir Brata, a researcher from Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), last year and has been applied in Bogor.

On April 22, Bogor city administration ordered the digging of 5,250 biopore holes in 21 of its sub-districts.

As of June, the city had dug more then 22,000 holes.

Kamir has been promoting the technology to Jakarta since.

"The problem with Jakarta's flood mitigation technology is that they are still separating water containment and waste disposal. These two areas are closely related and need to be addressed simultaneously," he said.

He claims to have introduced the technique to Jakarta officials around a year ago, but said he kept getting snubbed.

"I guess they thought the technology was too simple," he told The Jakarta Post in a separate interview.

"But it's good they're adopting it now, they are finally coming around," he said.

Budirama said the city also wants to build absorption wells under the city's flood prone streets but was waiting for the Jakarta Public Works Agency to release a concrete plan. (anw)

Old meets new in biopore campaign

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It's an old technique often used in Indonesia's rural areas, but the campaign for backyard biopore absorption holes (biopores) was heard for the first time in Jakarta on Saturday.

Enthusiasm ran high as experts from the Agricultural Institute of Bogor (IPB) and Erhalogy, a cosmetic brand, talked to Setu Babakan residents in Jagakarsa, South Jakarta.

The household technique, combining waste and water management, involves drilling a hole no bigger than 30 centimeters wide and 100 centimeters deep as an organic waste bin that also increases groundwater absorption.

"The old technique takes on new meaning as it can be used to mitigate flooding and take care of our waste problem," said Kamir R. Brata, professor from the landscape architecture department at IPB, who coordinates the campaign.

In Indonesia, the compost sinks began to receive more attention after February's flood which took numerous lives and caused losses of trillions of rupiah.

In April, the Bogor administration ordered more than 5,000 biopores sunk in 21 subdistricts.

As of June, Bogor had finished more then 22,000 holes. Kamir wants to expand the program to surrounding areas, including Jakarta.

According to Kamir, Jakarta planners have ignored the environment, preventing nature's underground network of roots, insects, worms and rodents from living up to potential.

Biopores return natural function to the ground when organic waste is composted, because insects and worms thrive, multiplying tiny passageways in the soil which absorb water.

"God has already given us the workers to keep floods away, now our duty is to make sure these workers don't leave."

The hole is made with a T-shaped hand drill which rotates clockwise. After the hole is made and tidied up, an effective microorganism (EM) solution is added to speed up decomposition.

All of the tools can be ordered from the landscape architecture department at IPB.

The ideal number of holes depends on the intensity of rains in the area. Adequate, however, explained Kamir, is for five small households sharing one drill to sink 25 holes in the immediate vicinity of their homes.

Dimiati, a corn farmer and producer, is among those who are not yet satisfied with the waste solution. While the holes may be able to deal with household waste, he said, he doesn't think they can handle industrial byproduct, which accumulates tons at time.

"I still don't see it as the solution to the waste problem," he said.

IPB and Erhalogy gave the four neighborhood units in Setu Babakan -- comprising 120 households -- 24 iron drills, 120 waste containers, eight drums of EM solution and ready-to-use EM and EM starter kits.

The donors plan to spend four months making sure the tools are used properly and the biopores maintained properly.

"The company is just concerned about the environment. The way we see it, the surface of the earth is like skin -- it needs pores to stay healthy, so we believe this idea is an innovative way to promote our brand," Erhalogy marketing manager Djoko Kurniawan said.

More information can be found at Biopori.com. (anw)