Bali bomb debris dumped at sea

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Benoa, Bali

Following Friday's Pamarisudha Karipubhaya (purification ceremony) at the blast site on Jl. Legian, the Bali administration began on Saturday to bulldoze the rubble from the buildings and dumped it at sea.

"It's the first time this has happened in Bali's history. It means symbolically that all the evil has been transferred to the sea," said head of Benoa port Adrian Surentu.

Adrian said the debris would be transported by tongkang (freighter), towed by a navy vessel to a point 10 miles from Benoa in the Badung Strait.

"The rubble will be dumped in the middle of the Badung Strait, over 150 meters deep, to avoid the risk of affecting the coastal areas around the strait," Adrian told The Jakarta Post and Elshinta radio.

This location was chosen also to prevent the debris from becoming an obstruction to passing ships or damaging the environment.

"If we didn't dump it far enough from the coast, the rubble could gradually be carried back to the beach by the tide and could adversely affect people living on the coast," Adrian said.

An official from Bali sanitation agency said earlier that the debris was estimated to weigh 1,160 metric tons in total.

Thirty nine trucks were observed transporting the debris from the Kuta bombsite to the port, while a heavy-duty backhoe loaded it onto the vessel.

The freighter -- 40 meters long, 12 meters wide, with a draft of four meters -- could take a load of up to 1,600 metric tons.

Four military and police platoons were also observed helping to unload the rubble onto the vessel.

An officer at the Bali transportation agency, Ciknana, said bulldozing of the blast rubble had commenced at 7:30 a.m.

"The loading process may not be completed in one day due to the sheer amount of material, consisting of the concrete and steel parts of ruined buildings and other damaged items, like vehicles and machinery," he said.

However, Ciknana said not all the rubble would be dumped into the sea.

"Wooden waste will be taken to the Suwung dump, South Denpasar, to be incinerated. It cannot be dumped at sea as it would float and litter the sea."