A breakthrough in waste?

For the first time in the history of Greater Jakarta, the capital and its satellite cities -- Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi -- have agreed to join hands in managing their waste.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed on Tuesday indicates the strong commitment of the seven municipal and regental administrations toward managing the 10,000 tons of garbage produced daily by the 27 million Greater Jakarta residents.

For Jakarta, finding and implementing an appropriate waste management technology for the 6,000 tons -- or 23,400 cubic meters -- of daily garbage is a necessity.

Still fresh in our minds is the dispute between Jakarta and Bekasi over the Bantar Gebang dump. The Bekasi administration refused to extend Jakarta's contract to use the 108 hectare dump, citing environmental damage caused by Jakarta's poor management.

Under the MOU, a new pilot project is to commence in Depok using the landfill technology, similar to that being used at Bantar Gebang.

Jakarta's haphazard development over the years, especially in regards population growth and management, had turned several areas along the borders of Bogor, Tangerang, Depok and Bekasi into buffer zones for the capital. The concept of establishing a more or less integrated territory embracing Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi -- known as the local acronym Jabotabek -- was thus introduced to synchronize development.

However, the effort failed because each municipality had its own interests to tend to, and a special agency, set up in the 1980s to manage and supervise Jabotabek's development, has never been operational.

For its part, the Jakarta Sanitation Agency has obviously been inefficient and disorganized in handling the disposal of the city's household garbage. The inadequate fleet of garbage trucks is an illustration of this incapability.

Ideally, Jakarta needs at least 1,200 garbage trucks, but it has only 700 trucks, not all of them operable; and while the capital needs at least 30,000 people to manage its waste, the sanitation agency has only about 15,000 employees.

The city administration also demonstrated last year its vague understanding of the importance of good sanitation services. Last year's budget set aside about Rp 214 billion (US$23.8 million) for the improvement of sanitation services, including the purchase of new garbage trucks.

No wonder that only about 60 percent of Jakarta's daily garbage can be processed, while the rest -- about 8,700 cu m -- is left to rot.

Given these facts, and considering the difficulty of integrating the development of the Greater Jakarta area, the MOU for a joint waste management force offers a ray of hope.

The new effort is funded by the World Bank through the Greater Jakarta Waste Management Corporation (JWMC), which is in charge of financial management. The JWMC, in turn, falls under the auspices of the West Java Environment Management Program (WJEMP).

According to JWMC team leader Jim Straker, the corporation has allocated $1.5 million for the establishment of the joint- administration cooperation, $1 million for consultation and facilitation, $300,000 for the landfill and composting pilot project and $200,000 for financing the joint secretariat.

WJEMP Central Program Support Unit head Noeradhi Iskandar, however, stressed that the Depok landfill should be implemented and monitored properly to show residents that this simple technology was efficient and clean.

Once the MOU is realized, Jakarta may feel some relief from its perennial headache caused by its waste issues.

It remains up to the administration to see whether this new plan will work -- and work in the long term. The public has had enough of beautiful plans that end up just that -- beautiful plans on paper. Financial accountability must also be monitored stringently, or the World Bank loans may do a disappearing trick.

Hopefully, however, the joint project will turn out to be a worthy gift for Jakarta, which turns 477 this month.