Jayapura- What do people who live in urban areas want most? Perhaps one of the answers is safe, healthy and comfortable housing. These criteria were chosen by the Papua Water Management Performance Development Unit and WWF Indonesia - Papua Program to commemorate World Habitat Day 2014. The community in the APO Kali area of Jayapura City on October 23, 2014 had the opportunity to participate in the commemoration of Habitat Day 2014. With the theme "Towards Healthy, Comfortable, and Safe Settlements," the community was invited to play an active role in a series of activities including; tree planting, interactive dialogue, understanding of disaster preparedness, and socialization of urban farming.

The selection of APO Kali area as the right activity is reasonable. This area is very vulnerable to various kinds of disasters and environmental management is still lacking attention. With the condition of dense residential areas, located around the cliff and close to the river, making this area prone to landslides, floods and fires. Piter Riki Aloisius as the representative of WWF and Activity Coordinator explained, "This APO area really needs to get the socialization of disaster response and environmental management. Dense settlements are very prone to disasters and it is also expected that all parties are involved in environmental management. We will try to mobilize the aspirations of the community."

After the event was officially opened by the Head of the Papua Province Public Works Office. The community and invited guests immediately carried out tree planting activities in landslide-prone locations. A total of 200 seedlings were provided consisting of Gnetum genemo, Pometia pinata, Alstonia scolaris, Casuarina sp and Swetenia macropila. The planting location, which was quite challenging and cliffy, did not dampen the enthusiasm of the participants to go together to the planting location.

Interactive dialog is the next agenda of the event. This event is aimed at mobilizing community aspirations and knowing environmental problems and their solutions. Representatives from the Papua Province Drinking Water Work Unit, Jayapura City Environmental Agency, Jayapura Province Disaster Management Agency, and WWF Indonesia - Papua Program were the speakers in the interactive dialog. There are three main topics that are of particular concern to both the speakers and the community, namely; structuring slum environments including waste management, providing green open spaces, and disaster preparedness, especially fires and landslides. The three main issues will be followed up with more specific activity programs, including; waste bank programs, provision of green open space through tree planting and urban farming, and disaster preparedness simulations.

Of course, the committee, in this case the WWF - Papua Program and the Papua Provincial Drinking Water Work Unit, wishes that the community after completing this activity can immediately take one of the real actions as part of the effort to create a healthy, comfortable, and safe settlement. Related to this, the socialization of urban farming and verticulture is the right choice of event material. The socialization material was delivered by Andhiani M. Kumalasari from WWF. Through this socialization, the community can know about the concept of household scale waste management through the 3R principles (reduce, reuse, and recycle) and organic farming used to develop urban farming activities. Through this concept, urban farming activities can be carried out by anyone at an affordable cost. People can directly try in their own homes or in groups. Furthermore, aside from waste management, urban farming has other benefits, both economically and ecologically. Properly managed urban farming will provide additional income for the community, be part of efforts to create food security and provide green open land for urban settlements.

At the end of the closing ceremony, the APO Kali community aspiration questionnaire was handed over by a representative of one of the RW heads to the Head of the Papua Province Drinking Water Work Unit. The questionnaire had previously been distributed to the community to collect data and information about the real problems that occur today. What is conveyed by the community in the questionnaire is important information for the government, especially the Drinking Water Working Unit and the Papua Province Public Works Office. Dr. Rahman Budi, Head of the Papua Province Waterworks Unit, stated that the government needs to know the strategic issues about cities. The Indonesian government itself is ratifying the UN program on urban issues. For 2014, the theme is "Voice from Slum". So what has been done on the celebration of Habitat Day 2014 is also in accordance with the theme. Voices and aspirations from the community have been informed both through questionnaires and interactive dialogs. (Andhiani M. Kumalasari)