Laundries plants to be moved<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Amid residents' complaints of water pollution caused by laundry
\nplants in the Sukabumi Selatan subdistrict, West Jakarta,
\nthe city administration said it would seek to relocate the plants
\nto industrial estates and require them to treat their liquid
\nwaste.<\/p>\n
"They can move to other locations designed for industrial
\nestates. Of course, they have to equip themselves with waste
\ntreatment facilities, otherwise, we'll just be moving the problem
\nsomewhere else," City Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo told reporters
\nat City Hall.<\/p>\n
Fauzi asserted that the administration may only allow the
\noperation of home industry laundries that provide services to
\nneighborhood customers, given the designated status of the
\nsubdistrict as a residential estate.<\/p>\n
Currently, at least 50 garment processing plants laundering
\njeans from textile markets in the city have been operating in the
\narea alongside several home industry laundries. All of them dump
\ntheir untreated liquid waste into waterways causing severe
\npollution to the Pesanggrahan River and the Sekretaris River.<\/p>\n
The City Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD) said the
\nadministration was preparing two sites in Semanan in West Jakarta
\nand Pulogadung in East Jakarta to relocate the polluting plants.<\/p>\n
"We are also looking into the possibility of providing a waste
\ntreatment facility there as it will be very costly for the
\nfactories to afford it themselves," the agency's head, Kosasih
\nWirahadikusumah, told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
He did not detail the cost of the facility.<\/p>\n
"We'll need six months to persuade the owners of the laundry
\nplants to relocate their businesses. The relocation process
\nitself will take two or three months," Kosasih added.<\/p>\n
He admitted that the administration would not take any sterner
\naction against the owners of the plants for fear of "social
\nunrest", ignoring the fact that the plants are violating
\nprevailing regulations by polluting the environment and by
\noperating without necessary permits.<\/p>\n
"We have to bear in mind that the operation of these labor-
\nintensive enterprises has helped the administration in providing
\njob opportunities to residents," he argued.<\/p>\n
Each plant employs between 40 and 50 workers.<\/p>\n
Aside from pollution concerns, local residents have filed a
\ncomplaint to the City Council against the operation of the plants
\nbecause of the powerful water pumps that they use to draw ground
\nwater that has resulted in their own shallow wells drying up.
\nThey complained that they had to pay out money to purchase clean
\nwater everyday.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/laundries-plants-to-be-moved-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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