{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": 1795262,
        "msgid": "jakarta-must-stop-rowing-on-waste-management-1781078170",
        "date": "2026-06-10 14:17:00",
        "title": "Jakarta Must Stop 'Rowing' on Waste Management",
        "author": "",
        "source": "CNBC",
        "tags": "",
        "topic": "Infrastructure",
        "summary": "Jakarta's waste crisis has reached a critical point as the Bantargebang landfill reaches capacity, forcing a ban on open dumping from August 2026. The city government is investing in a Refuse Derived Fuel plant, but critics argue its dual role as regulator and operator stifles private investment and leads to inefficiency. The article contends that the administration's insistence on 'rowing' rather than 'steering' perpetuates a costly system that fails to resolve the fundamental waste problem.",
        "content": "<p>Jakarta has a massive waste problem. Each day, the capital generates\napproximately 7,500 tonnes of rubbish, most of which ends up at the\nBantargebang Integrated Waste Treatment Facility, a 110-hectare mountain\nof refuse in Bekasi City. The facility has been declared over capacity\nand even claimed four lives in a landslide on 8 March 2026. The\nsituation has now entered a critical phase. Starting 1 August 2026, the\nJakarta Provincial Government officially halted the practice of open\ndumping at Bantargebang. Under Gubernatorial Instruction Number 5 of\n2026, the facility may now only accept residual waste that absolutely\ncannot be recycled or processed. Residents, schools, markets, and\nbusinesses are required to sort waste at source into four\ncategories\u2014organic, recyclable, hazardous, and residual\u2014or face\nadministrative sanctions under Regional Regulation Number 3 of 2013. At\nthe grassroots level, every community unit is obliged to have an active\nwaste bank or other upstream management initiative. This policy should\nserve as a wake-up call: Bantargebang can no longer accommodate the old\nway of discarding rubbish. If upstream sorting remains suboptimal and\nuneven, and downstream processing capacity is inadequate, Jakarta\u2019s\nwaste will have nowhere to go except to pile up on city streets. The\ncost of maintaining this system is not cheap. Each year, the Jakarta\nprovincial government pays compensation grants totalling Rp379.5 billion\nto the Bekasi City Government, mostly distributed as direct cash\nassistance to thousands of families in affected wards as \u2018smell money\u2019,\nwith the remainder going towards local infrastructure and health\nservices. This means that as long as Jakarta lacks an adequate waste\nprocessing system, hundreds of billions of rupiah will flow annually not\nto solve the problem, but merely to pay for its impacts and\nexternalities. As a proposed solution, the Jakarta provincial government\nhas budgeted for the construction of a Refuse Derived Fuel Plant at\nBantargebang, technology that processes waste into alternative fuel. On\npaper, the project sounds visionary. In reality, the RDF project and the\nemergency of mounting rubbish in Jakarta are stark illustrations of a\ngovernment that is too intent on rowing the boat, rather than standing\nat the stern and steering. Three decades ago, David Osborne and Ted\nGaebler, in their seminal work Reinventing Government (1992), offered a\nsharp diagnosis of why public bureaucracies often fail in service\ndelivery. One of their most fundamental principles is the distinction\nbetween steering and rowing. Osborne and Gaebler quote E.S. Savas: \u2018The\njob of government is to steer, not to row the boat. Delivering services\nis rowing, and government is not very good at rowing.\u2019 In modern public\nadministration, government should be the policymaker, regulator, and\nsupervisor, not the direct operator of public services. When government\nis too busy rowing, it gradually loses its ability to steer.\nFurthermore, Osborne and Gaebler warned that organisations combining\nsteering and rowing under one roof tend to suffer from both\nill-conceived policy and inefficient implementation. Peter Drucker,\ncited in the book, wrote that any attempt to combine governing with\n\u2018doing\u2019 on a large scale paralyses decision-making capacity. This is\nprecisely what is happening in Jakarta. The construction of the\nBantargebang RDF Plant was established through Gubernatorial Decree\nNumber 527 of 2021, based partly on Gubernatorial Regulation Number 44\nof 2020 concerning Procedures for Proposing and Designating Design and\nBuild Works. This regulation specifically governs integrated\nconstruction projects carried out through the regional budget by\nregional apparatus. In effect, from the outset the RDF project was\ndesigned as a purely government venture financed by taxpayers, built by\npartners appointed through government procurement, and operated under\nbureaucratic control. This scheme closes the door for the private sector\nto compete on an equal footing to build and operate similar facilities.\nMeanwhile, another regulatory loophole is feared by some to be a barrier\nfor private investors seeking to enter Jakarta\u2019s waste management\nbusiness. Regional Regulation Number 2 of 2005 on Air Pollution Control,\nnow partially superseded by Regulation 4\/2019, contains strict emission\nprovisions that could technically be applied to deny permits for thermal\nwaste processing facilities, including RDF plants, proposed by private\nentities. Even though waste management regulations do not explicitly\nprohibit business entity involvement, the concern is that private\npermits are not issued, not due to an explicit ban, but because of a\nstrict interpretation of air pollution control rules.<\/p>",
        "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/jakarta-must-stop-rowing-on-waste-management-1781078170",
        "image": ""
    },
    "sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
    "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}