82 percent of firms do not treat waste
Multa Fidrus, Tangerang
Some 82 percent of 1,061 of industrial firms in Tangerang municipality do not have waste treatment facilities as required by law. Therefore, most of them do not process their waste effectively. Some even just dump their untreated waste directly into the river.
"To date, only 187 firms have waste treatment facilities but apparently most of the facilities do not work properly," said the municipal environmental agency head Muhamad Akip on Saturday.
He added that 874 other firms -- comprising of small, medium and large firms -- do not have waste treatment facility.
"The firms always say in their semester reports submitted to the agency that providing their own waste treatment facility is very costly. We have warned them to follow the regulation," he said.
According to Akip, the municipality plans to conduct a study to build integrated waste treatment facilities to collectively process the industrial waste of several firms. However, the project would require a huge amount of funding and a large plot of land.
"As of now, we have yet to find the right site for the construction of integrated waste treatment facilities. The facilities will be built based on the type of waste produced by industrial firms," he said.
Akip said the results of tests at the Office of the State Minister of the Environment laboratory revealed the oxygen content in water samples taken from the Cisadane River, in the border between Tangerang regency and municipality, has been declining.
The minister's office will continue monitoring the water quality from the river upstream in Bogor through Tangerang to find out which firms dump the most waste into the river.
Tangerang Mayor Wahidin Halim announced on June 10 nine firms allegedly responsible for polluting the municipality. They are PT Argo Pantes, PT Pelita Cengkareng, PT Indometal, PT Surya Renggo, PT Lengtat Tangerang Leather, PT Tonikitex, Harlipan Batik, Sejahtera Metal and Vonicc Latyexindo. The mayor also asked Tangerang Police to investigate and prosecute them.
Non-governmental organization Forum (Forum NGO) chairman Muslih Amin said the absence of waste treatment facilities was the fault of the environmental agency.
"The agency has the authority to take stern measures against alleged polluters who do not build waste treatment facilities," he told The Jakarta Post.
He urged the administration to involve the community in conservation efforts. He also asked the agency to establish an independent institution to resolve environmental disputes out of the court.
The existence of such an institution is important to ensure that disputes over environmental pollution between industrial firms and the administration or the society are solved effectively, he added.