About garbage fees

About garbage fees

From Warta Kota

Warta Kota reported on Sept. 7, 2000 that the Jakarta
administration was planning to increase the garbage fee and that
it would be paid along with electricity bills, not through the
executive boards of neighborhood community/associations (RT/RW),
as is the practice now.

I take exception to the change because it is the RT/RW heads
that best know which garbage belongs to which member of the
neighborhood. The Jakarta sanitation service does not have this
information. It may well be that a resident simply burns his/her
garbage at the back of their house.

The Jakarta governor must be aware of the fact that not every
resident needs the service of a garbage man. Therefore, a garbage
fee cannot be imposed squarely on every resident because if it
is, some residents will be disadvantaged.

Besides, I am not sure that garbage fee collection through
RT/RW is less effective than the planned collection along with
the payment of electricity bills. Obviously, as the sanitation
service does not have accurate information about the residents
needing its service, it will impose this fee only on an average
basis.

Once again, the governor must not force people to pay the
garbage fee unless they subscribe to the garbage disposal
service. He must find a suitable and fair way to impose the fee.

NURHASANAH

Jakarta