Anies Opens Up About Tebet Eco Park: Dense Residents Come, Less Opportunity To Enjoy The Park

DKI Governor Anies Baswedan (Photo via Facebook Anies Baswedan)

JAKARTA - The Governor of DKI Jakarta, Anies Baswedan, has opened his voice regarding the chaotic problem of Tebet Eco Park, South Jakarta. This problem arose because of the large number of visitors, accompanied by the proliferation of illegal parking and street vendors without permits, drawing protests from local residents.

Since the Tebet Eco Park was inaugurated two months ago, Anies said residents of Jakarta and outside the area have flocked to enjoy the green open space.

"Various age and economic segments take turns exploring the park and taking advantage of its various features. Of course, we at the DKI Provincial Government are happy to see the enthusiasm of the residents in taking advantage of the facilities that have been built," Anies said on the aniesbaswedan Instagram account, Thursday, June 16.

However, it turns out that the number of residents who come to Tebet Eco Park is so high that the park and the surrounding area become very crowded. Unexpectedly, visitors who come can reach six times the capacity.

"The park, which was designed with a capacity of 8-10 thousand, once had 60,000 residents on a weekend. The opportunity to enjoy the park has been greatly reduced due to the extreme density," said Anies.

The large number of visitors causes traffic congestion on the roads around Tebet Eco Park, which actually only has a width of one vehicle segment on the left and right lanes.

The high enthusiasm of these visitors is also taken advantage of by illegal parking attendants who disturb the road to the sidewalk to street vendors who sell without a permit around Tebet Eco Park and residential areas.

Congestion and garbage become unavoidable. Residents who live around the Tebet Eco Park admit that they are frustrated with this chaos. They have repeatedly reported complaints through the JAKI application, until finally they only received a response when this problem went viral on social media.

Therefore, Anies decided to temporarily close the Tebet Eco Park for a few weeks until the end of June. As long as it is closed, the DKI Provincial Government will fix the park which has the aim of restoring the ecosystem and naturalizing the green and blue open space.

"Tebet Eco Park was built for residents to enjoy the atmosphere of the park and urban forest, gain insight into a beautiful and sustainable environment. This goal is difficult to achieve if the density is so extreme that the atmosphere of the park is more like a festival than a city park," said Anies.

"So, we have to reorganize the management of Tebet Eco Park. For the time being, Tebet Eco Park will be closed until the end of June to make improvements to the facilities," he continued.