Jakarta’s green space is actually much less than 9%

The title above is the reason why I think that the awarding of Adipura to four of Jakarta’s municipalities was highly biased.

clipped from www.skyscrapercity.com City wins four Adipura awards Four of Jakarta's municipalities have received Adipura environmental awards for being among the cleanest and greenest cities nationwide. South Jakarta ranked second after South Sumatra's Palembang, followed by West Jakarta, Surabaya, North Jakarta and Central Jakarta. The four municipalities' victories left East Jakarta and the Thousand Islands regency off the winners' list.

My uncle, who teaches Humanities and Urban administration at one of the most well-known private universities in Jakarta, told me that Jakarta’s green space is actually much less than the 9% reported by the media.

What is defined as green space, actually?

Ordinary people like you and me define it as:

“Any open urban space that exhibits plant life, which could help reduce the number of existing pollutants in the city into healthier air for the citizens to breathe”

The Jakarta city administration however, has a wider scope of definition:

“All living and non-living things that occur naturally on an urban space”

Yes, the so-called ‘non-living natural things’ include the unsown lands used for the kids’ football fields and the notoriously dump haven Ciliwung River that run thru many parts of the city.

One of the "Green spaces" as defined by the city administration

Uhm... I think they look a bit brownish there!

Well the river water may look GREEN enough to the government, especially with all the GREEN algaes and other floating GREEN wastes excreted by the slum dwellers on the riverbank. But we don’t suppose that the rivers exhale any healthy air for us Jakartans, do they?

Perhaps the governor himself should try doing some yoga or Tai Chi by the Ciliwung river bank and we’ll see how long could he last inhaling in and out the oxygen with all the “Whoooo---shaaaahhh!!” chants.