660 graves to be moved for waste treatment pump

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)