I think Tanjung Balai Karimun, as a smaller city in such a strategic area, has the potential to be one of the cleanest cities in Indonesia too.  Being so close to Singapore, many of the locals often travel back and forth. I believe that seeing how clean Singapore is, the locals must have learned a thing or two. In fact, in the list of cleanest cities in Indonesia, Tanjung Balai Karimun is among the top 30s of cleanest cities for the middle-sized city category. There are of course still room for improvement. Such as the gap between rubbish collected at home to the initial collection point. From the Government’s side, there needs to be tighter waste management from the bottom up. One suggestion is to have people to collect rubbish from one house to another house, just like in Singapore. This should not be very difficult as Tanjung Balai Karimun is really small. However, as urban planning in Tanjung Balai Karimun is not as tidy as Singapore, it may make it difficult. Thus, community work is important too. People will need to see the importance of bringing their rubbish to the initial collection point. Perhaps the government can make it easier by increasing the number of the collection point and dustbins so that every street has at least one. This not only helps with the overflowing situation but would also hopefully make it easier for people to do their own part.

My wish is that one day, Tanjung Balai Karimun will also be able to clean up the streets of rubbish. Which will then allow us to continue with the next stage of waste management, Recycling. But for now, smoothing over the waste management system will definitely cause a big change.

Thank You