Trash piling up, Jakartans fear disease<\/p>\n
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The City administration is hastily implementing stopgap measures
\nto prevent an outbreak of disease threatened by the mounting
\npiles of trash throughout Jakarta, neglected as a result of the
\ndispute over the Bantar Gebang dump site.<\/p>\n
The specter of cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, influenza and
\nbronchitis now lingers over the capital, a result of the
\nauthorities' ineptness in dealing with the garbage crisis.<\/p>\n
If preventive measures are not consistently pursued, Jakarta
\ncould be facing a possible epidemic by Christmas.<\/p>\n
Jakartans are also being urged to be more careful in
\ndiscarding their trash, by either burning it or ensuring that
\ngarbage was tightly sealed in plastic bags.<\/p>\n
City Health Agency chief Abdul Kholik on Thursday warned that
\n"without proper treatment, the diseases could erupt in two to
\nfive days."<\/p>\n
Authorities have now resorted to spraying disinfectant
\nchemicals on the garbage, which is lying in the open in temporary
\ngarbage lots and in the back of some 700 dump trucks parked in
\nsanitary offices across five mayoralties, to avert a health
\ncrisis.<\/p>\n
After initiating the spraying on Thursday, authorities said
\nthe measure would suffice for five days.<\/p>\n
But Health Agency officials soon made a desperate plea for
\nemergency funds as they may not be able to afford the Rp 76
\nmillion cost of the next round of spraying.<\/p>\n
"We don't know how to finance it if the trash continues to
\nmount," Kholik complained, adding that the cost was Rp 200 per
\nsquare meter of garbage surface.<\/p>\n
He claimed that some 300 health community centers and
\nhospitals in the city had been told to take pre-emptive steps to
\nprepare for an outbreak of disease.<\/p>\n
Garbage has been building up since Monday, when the main
\ngarbage dump site at Bantar Gebang in Bekasi was closed due to a
\ndispute between the Bekasi mayoralty and the Jakarta
\nadministration.<\/p>\n
Claims by the Jakarta administration that it had prepared
\nalternative sites have proven to be misleading, and as a result
\ngarbage has either been left neglected in temporary community
\ndump sites or on board dump trucks that have nowhere to dispose
\nof it.<\/p>\n
Jakarta and Bekasi reportedly continued to negotiate on
\nThursday, but with little progress. Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso on
\nThursday could only express his hope that the talks would soon
\nproduce results.<\/p>\n
The crisis has proven that the administration has no strategy
\nfor adequately handling the 25,000 cubic meters produced by the
\ncity every day.<\/p>\n
According to Kholik, open garbage encourages the growth of
\nlarva, which within two to three hours can produce flies and
\nother insects that cause germs to become airborne.<\/p>\n
Members of the local council were full of recriminations on
\nThursday but offered few solutions, focussing instead on past
\nsuggestions they had made that could have averted the crisis.<\/p>\n
Councillor Tjuk Sudono of the National Mandate Party urged the
\nadministration to distribute huge trash bags so garbage would not
\nbe left exposed in the open air.<\/p>\n
"With the garbage neatly stored, the city buys time to find
\nalternatives for handling it," Tjuk of the council's commission D
\nfor development affairs said.<\/p>\n
He further rebuked the administration for disregarding past
\ncouncil proposals on waste management, which included
\nconstructing a giant waste incinerator.<\/p>",
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