After a river cleanup event in Jakarta on Friday, Minister Hanif stated that the ministry will soon reintroduce several programs earlier implemented, including the Clean River, Blue Sky, Green Indonesia, and Healthy Ocean programs, aimed at enhancing environmental quality across the country.
"Our Environmental Quality Index is still below the target. All regions in Indonesia are below the target envisioned by the National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN)," Hanif remarked.
According to the minister, these programs are necessary, as improving the Environmental Quality Index requires specific projects with targeted objectives. This way, all components of the nation can contribute to enhancing environmental conditions.
As a concrete step, the ministry also plans to increase the weight of waste management in the Adipura environmental awards to encourage local governments to take environmental preservation more seriously.
“We are overhauling the Adipura award entirely. The waste component will no longer account for only 30 percent of the score. Instead, waste management will weigh 70 or 75 percent in the evaluation,” he noted.
So far, waste management has often been inadequate as the assessment component for waste management only weighs 30 percent.
By revamping the evaluation criteria, he affirmed that only local governments that have addressed waste issues actively will qualify for the Adipura award.
According to the Ministry of Environment, the Environmental Quality Index in 2023 increased by 0.12 points to 72.54. Specifically, the Water Quality Index reached 54.59; the Air Quality Index, 88.67; the Land Quality Index, 61.79; and the Marine Water Quality Index stood at 78.84 in 2023.
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Translator: Primayanti
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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