CILIWUNG RIVER IN BOGOR BOTANICAL GARDEN NOW CLEANER by Fardah

 Jakarta, Dec 20 , 2016(Antara) - As holiday season to celebrate Christmas and New Year is approaching, many Indonesians are getting ready to spend the holidays with their families in tourist resorts and parks, including Bogor botanical garden.

         To help beautify the botanical garden, members of the Presidential security unit (Paspampres) on Dec 17 joined a clean-up activity for Ciliwung River, which crosses the garden, located in Bogor City, West Java.

          President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and the First Lady live in the Bogor Presidential Palace, located within the complex of the 87-hectare botanical garden, against the backdrop of Mt. Salak.

         Wearing a sport shirt, Jokowi came out of the Bogor palace at 10:30 a.m. local time on that day to watch his guards cleaning the river. He also toured the botanical garden and greeted the garden's visitors.

         "Ciliwung River is cleaner now. It's still dirty, but it is cleaner than it was in the past," the Head of State said.

         The Commander of Paspampres Major General Bambang Suswanto noted the clean-up was organized to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the unit.

         The event drew participation from more than 200 people, including police and military officers and members of the Ciliwung Care Community (KPC), among others, who picked up trash in the Ciliwung River.

         "We hope to see a cleaner Ciliwung River passing through the botanical garden, but so far, we have seen garbage on both sides of the river," he stressed.

         The Bogor botanical garden belongs to everyone, so its cleanliness must be maintained, he added.

         "If the botanical garden is clean, the river must also be clean. Paspampres has been contributing to cleaning it, as it is an attractive tourist destination and, moreover, the president lives here," he stated.

         Ciliwung River flows 120km from Bogor in West Java to the ocean. The main river flows from the District of Bogor, passing through Bogor City, Depok, and the capital of Jakarta.

         The 200-mile long stretch of pollution in the area comes from everywhere: raw sewage, industrial pollution, agricultural pollution, and household trash.

        President Jokowi praised the existence of the KPC and urged the community to remind people not to dispose of their waste by tossing it into the river.

         "The community should not only collect sacks of garbage from the river but also remind people not to throw waste into Ciliwung River," Jokowi remarked.

        "The river's sanitation is still only being partially handled. I recommend the establishment of a commission for river management," the president noted.    
     The KPC is a Bogor-based volunteer community that cares for Ciliwung River and natural preservation.

          Head of KPC Bogor Een Irawan Putra affirmed that the waste problem in Ciliwung River should be taken seriously. Cleaning the river should become a movement.

          He pointed out that the government should establish a special agency to save the country's major rivers and river basin areas from severe contamination, sedimentation, and other environmental hazards.

         "It is not enough to partially clean the river," he stated.      
    The botanical garden is a plant conservation center that is open to tourists, as well as domestic and foreign researchers.

          The ticket costs Rp15 thousand for domestic tourists and Rp25 thousand for foreigners.

         The venue is open from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. However, during heavy rains and windy weather, the garden closes early to ensure the safety of visitors because it is home to many large old trees.

         The country's oldest botanical garden boasts over 400 species of palm trees, 5,000 trees gathered from around the tropical world, and an orchid house containing 3,000 varieties. Records show that the Bogor botanical garden harbors 3,504 plant species, with 1,273 genera in 199 families.

         Some 10 thousand people visit the botanical garden on weekends.

        The founder of the garden was Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt, who was appointed in 1817 as the director of agricultural businesses.

         As a botanist, he was very interested in investigating plants used by the Javanese for household and medicinal purposes. Reinwardt, with permission from the governor, decided to transform the gardens around the governor's residence, Buitenzorg, into a botanical garden where he could bring in plant species from all over the archipelago. (f001/INE  )
EDITED BY INE

(T.F001/A/BESSR/F. Assegaf) 20-12-2016