The dry season for most part of Jakarta residents are filled with flood but for some people like who’s job is to keep jakarta city green dry season is a challenge. Maman Kumanto, 49, said he had been watering Jakarta’s plants since he moved to the capital city in 1985 and started working as an assistant driver of a water tanker for the city agency.
Its hard to hard to get water in dry season because the water from the rivers already declining, gets dirtier and smell very bad. “We sometimes take water from the fountain pond near Bank Indonesia,” Maman said, grinning. Maman, who is responsible for watering plants in the nature strips along Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat and Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan in Central Jakarta, said the pond was the most reliable source of water because he could not rely on the two rivers located near Menteng and the Presidential Palace.
“We have to look for water sources ourselves because the agency does not provide information on which rivers we can use,” he said, adding that he had to go back and forth refill at least five times every night.
Linda Mulyani, head of the green area division at the city’s Park and Cemetery Agency, said the city’s water tankers were deployed during dry season to help the third party water the plants. “It’s hard to find water during the dry season. We have the right to take water from the pond because we manage it,” he said.
Linda said the windy dry season also brought other problems such as plant diseases that attacked plumeria trees. The disease creates small white dots on leaves, causing them to wrinkle and eventually fall off.
“We call it white lice. It’s contagious and can spread to other plants. Now we have to spray certain chemicals to protect the plants,” she said.
Plumeria and frangipani are common along Jl. Sudirman and Jl. M.H. Thamrin. The plumeria plants along Jl. Sisingamangaraja and Ayodya Park in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta also suffer from the disease.
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