Sriatun Djupri: from the bottom of the heart

Sriatun leaved her home town of Trenggalek and moved to Surabaya in 1973, in Kampong Jambangan. Living in Kampong Jambangan which near Surabaya River in 1970s was far away from good environment. Instead of a dumping ground, slump area, water pollution, or breeding place of disease, Jambangan was well known as the longest lavatory in Surabaya at that time. Most of the migrant families in Jambangan exploited the river for bathing, washing, and as lavatory. The young Sriatun called it as “helicopter”. That was the time that she promised to attack “the helicopters”.

Involving with some organizations, formally called Karang Taruna (youth organization) and PKK (women organization), she started to promote clean environment through avoiding to use the river for dumping. It started from her own home. In 1986, the city government of Surabaya enacted local regulation which mandated each community to manage their waste inventory effectively, from a simple ship-in, to merge of containers into a tank, or a split of waste.
Believing that the regulation would be an effective weapon to fight for “the helicopters”, Ms Sriatun came to her neighborhood to take a look at whom who already pursuit it. Conversely, her neighbors presumed her activities for fund raising. No wonder that nobody would like to met her. The servant or even dog was the one who preferred to welcome her.

In 1996, the Provincial Government granted public sanitation with 9 lavatories for Kampong Jambangan. However, it needed more and more fighting against the community’s bad habit of disposing of excreta anywhere within the river. Jambangan was still under attack by "the helicopters". In 2000, Unilever promoted Clean Brantas River through greening the river. Starting at the house of Ms Djupri, the program distributed the plant to her neighbor for free. Unilever also renovated the public sanitation which provided by the government. She also got supports from various organizations to compost organic materials, such as Mr Yadi, and Mr Takakura. Many volunteers were involving the program with support from foreign and domestic funding. Nowadays, we cannot find any “helicopters” in Jambangan.

She got many awards for environment movement, i.e. Environment Survivor 2006 from Surabaya Mayor Bambang Dwihartono, Global Award from Austria 2006, Kalpataru 2008 from President Yudhoyono, Green and Clean Award 2007 from Jawa Post, Heroes 2009 in Kick Any Metro TV.

By Hendy, Bachtiar Pugoh, Wulan Liliana, Wulan Lusiana, Christina Dewi (B)