660 graves to be moved for waste treatment pump

JAKARTA (JP): Spirits of the dead here can no longer rest in peace as the City Administration is planning to move 660 graves at the Menteng Pulo graveyard in South Jakarta to make way for the construction of a waste water treatment pump house.

City Councillor Muhayar RM of the Justice Party said on Thursday that the pump house was urgently needed as the central government two years ago built a 1.3 kilometer pipeline worth Rp 3 billion (US$300,000) in the area to handle waste water.

"The pipeline will be useless if the pump house is not built," said Muhayar as he, along with several councillors of the Council's Commission D for development affairs, visited the 3.2 hectare graveyard.

He said the pump house would serve households and hotels in the Setiabudi area, South Jakarta and in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

The graveyard has been closed since 1997 and most of the 660 graves have been abandoned. Muhayar said that only 30 of them are still taken care of by the relatives of those buried here. He urged the South Jakarta mayoralty to inform them about the project soon.

"This (the plan to relocate the graves) should be made known to the public first before the pump house is built to avoid protests from the relatives," he said.

Muhayar said the 660 graves would be removed to a nearby plot of land, but still within the graveyard complex.

The councillors made the visit in connection with a latter from City Governor Sutiyoso dated Dec. 1, last year, asking for approval from the Council to build the pump house.

Sutiyoso said in the letter, the pump house construction would need a 1,080 square meter plot of land, which was occupied by 660 graves.

He said that the construction would be financed by Japan's Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF), but the governor did not reveal the cost. The land appropriation would be handled by the city-owned waste water treatment firm PD PAL Jaya. (jun)