Disposing of the city's garbage<\/p>\n
By Johannes Simbolon<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): If you drive along the main streets of Jakarta
\nat night, you will see a horde of workers, clad either in yellow,
\nblue or orange, sweeping the streets and collecting the disposals
\nof the day.<\/p>\n
If you take the same streets to go to the office the following
\nmorning, you usually feel fine since you see no litter any
\nlonger.<\/p>\n
And if you live in a posh housing complex, where cleanliness
\nis usually well preserved, you might draw the conclusion that
\nJakarta is clean and tidy.<\/p>\n
The national committee for the Adipura environmental award
\nconcluded the same when they bestowed it on four of the city's
\nmayoralties, South, East, West and Central Jakarta, last year.<\/p>\n
But, if you visit second or third class roads, particularly in
\nslum areas, you will find that garbage remains a big problem for
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
According to the latest data issued by the Jakarta Sanitation
\nOffice, more than 25,000 cubic meters of refuse are disposed of
\nin Jakarta every day. Approximately 21,000 cubic meters, or 83
\npercent, can be accommodated in the existing landfill sites.<\/p>\n
Jakarta is home to more than 9 million people. Each resident
\nis estimated to dispose of 2.92 liters of waste per day.<\/p>\n
The figures exclude human excrement, which is put at around 25
\nliters per person per year or about 945 cubic meters per day in
\nthe city. Only 300 cubic meters, or about 31 percent, can be
\nhandled.<\/p>\n
Where does the unhandled garbage and sewage go?<\/p>\n
\"It is used by people to fill out low land, it is turned into
\ncompost, remains scattered or goes into the rivers and out to
\nsea,\" said Moch. Subasir, chief of the Jakarta Sanitation Office.<\/p>\n
The 4,000 cubic meters of unhandled garbage is equal to 400
\ntrucks each with a 10-cubic-meter capacity.<\/p>\n
Subasir blames the problem on an insufficient number of
\ncarriers. There are only 716 trucks, a far cry from the 1,300
\ntrucks needed to take all the garbage to the landfill sites or
\naeration plants.<\/p>\n
Jakarta has one giant landfill in Bantar Gebang, Bekasi, 40
\nkilometers from Jakarta, on 108 hectares of land; and two
\naeration plants, in Pulo Gebang, East Jakarta, covering around 12
\nhectares of land, with a capacity of aerating 300 cubic meters of
\nsewage every day, and in Penas, East Jakarta, with a capacity of
\naerating 60 cubic meters a day.<\/p>\n
Traffic jams<\/p>\n
If there were no traffic jams in Jakarta, a greater amount of
\ngarbage and sewage could be handled every day.<\/p>\n
Subasir says each truck can only make 1.6 trips per day.<\/p>\n
In an effort to shorten the trip, the Jakarta administration,
\ntogether with a private company, PT Wiragulfindo Sarana, built a
\n2.5-hectare transit station in Cakung-Cilincing (Cacing) in 1992,
\nEast Jakarta, where the garbage is dumped and compressed before
\nbeing taken by other trucks to Bantar Gebang.<\/p>\n
The compressed garbage will prolong the life of Bantar Gebang,
\nas it will be able to store more garbage. The compressed garbage
\nreportedly takes eight times less space than the uncompressed
\nwaste.<\/p>\n
However, the Cacing transit station's capacity is only 1,000
\ntons per day. The rest of the garbage is thus carried directly
\nfrom refuse containers in housing complexes, stores, etc. to
\nBantar Gebang.<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Sanitation Office's spokesman, Iskandar Damanik,
\nsays the transit station thus far only receives garbage from West
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
\"It's too far from West Jakarta to Bantar Gebang,\" says Manik.<\/p>\n
Opened in 1989, Bantar Gebang can take up garbage for another
\nfour to seven years. Thus, between the year 2000 and 2003 the
\nman-made valley will be full and will have to be closed.<\/p>\n
This would be even be shorter if there were no scavengers who
\ndiligently collect the recyclable waste. There are reportedly
\nmore than 10,000 scavengers making a life from the landfill.<\/p>\n
Environment<\/p>\n
The issue of garbage and sewage in Jakarta doesn't only
\nconcern the amount of waste that goes unhandled, but also the
\nenvironmental soundness of the landfill and aeration plants.<\/p>\n
The aeration plants in Pulo Gebang and Penas use a method
\nwhich is environmentally sound. The city administration plans to
\nbuild another plant in Duri Kosambi with a 300-cubic-meter
\ncapacity.<\/p>\n
Environmentally sound methods are also used at the Bantar
\nGebang landfill site.<\/p>\n
Before Bantar Gebang was opened, the garbage was handled in
\nthe so-called open dumping method, which does not meet
\nenvironmental requirements.<\/p>\n
At least two big landfills used the method, one in Cacing, and
\nanother in Kapuk Kamal, West Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The Cacing landfill site was closed after the operation of
\nBantar Gebang, while the Kapuk Kamal was still used until last
\nyear.<\/p>\n
At both locations, the garbage was simply dumped without any
\ntreatment, left to stink and pollute the air, while the leachet,
\nor the liquid that seeps out of the garbage, contaminated the
\ngroundwater in the area.<\/p>\n
\"It was closed after the area's residents launched protests,\"
\nManik says.<\/p>\n
Bantar Gebang meets environmental requirements and in that
\nrespect is regarded as the best sanitary landfill in Southeast
\nAsia, according to Manik.<\/p>\n
To make the sanitary landfill, the land was dug out three
\nmeters deep. The big hole was then covered with clay and high
\ndensity polyethylene to prevent the leachet from infiltrating the
\nground and contaminating the groundwater.<\/p>\n
The leachet is channeled to a main hole which leads to the
\nadjacent aeration plants, where it is processed to extract its
\ntoxic elements. The water is then streamed out to the nearby
\nriver.<\/p>\n
To eliminate the putrid smell, the garbage is covered with 15
\ncentimeters of thick soil after it is two meters high. Garbage is
\ndumped again up to seven meters high before being layered again
\nwith soil up to 30 centimeters thick.<\/p>\n
\"When it is closed in the future, the landfill will look like
\na hill. It can then be converted into a nice park, a housing
\ncomplex, or whatever,\" Manik says.<\/p>\n
The city administration plans to open another sanitary
\nlandfill like Bantar Gebang in Ciangir, Tangerang on about 100
\nhectares of land. Two transit stations will be built in Duri
\nKosambi, West Jakarta and Sunter Agung, North Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The question is: What will happen if the Bantar Gebang and
\nCiangir landfills are closed? Where will the garbage be dumped?<\/p>\n
\"We have been thinking about using the garbage to reclaim the
\nsea or buying incinerators,\" says Manik.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/disposing-of-the-citys-garbage-1447893297",
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