Not only occupying sidewalks and roadsides, the street vendors and people with social welfare issues (PMKS) now also starting to occupy parks. As a result, tens of parks in East Jakarta are damaged due to being used as business locations by the street vendors and places to rest by PMKS.

Based on our data, more than 20 parks are damaged and the damage level is over 50 percent

One of those parks is the Viaduk Jatinegara Park. Here, PMKS are doing household’s daily activities like washing and drying clothes. The condition gets worse because the park is also smelled stinky because those PMKS are urinating haphazardly under the trees.

In Pasarebo Park, the street vendors utilized the park to store their goods. The plants in this park are also dying because of being stepped on by the street vendors.

While the PKK Park on Jalan Sumarno or Jalan Sentra Timur, it is transformed into business location, bicycle workshop, and illegal parking lot by the street vendors. Most of the plants in this park are also dying and damaged.

Responding this matter, Head of East Jakarta Parks Sub-Department, Suzi Marsitawati, disclosed that more than 20 parks in the municipality are damaged. She promised to repair those parks immediately. At this time, her department is in planning phase to submit the parks’ repairing works to Jakarta Procurement Services Unit (ULP).

“Indeed, there are a lot of parks damaged. We have scheduled to repair those parks this year. Based on our data, more than 20 parks are damaged and the damage level is over 50 percent,” she stated, Wednesday (8/6).

According to Marsitawati, her department has prepared budget as much as Rp 4 billion from the 2014 City Budget (APBD) to repair damaged parks. Later, those parks will be totally renovated to get new modern looks, planted with new trees and neatly arranged, as well as equipped with park benches in the size of 50 centimeters, 1 meter, and 1.5 meters.