Bali Waste Management Forum Disappointed by Repeated Suwung Landfill Closure Delays

The Bali Self-Managed Waste Management Forum (SSB) has expressed its disappointment regarding the pattern of repeated delays to the closure of the Suwung Final Processing Site (Tempat Pemrosesan Akhir). SSB Forum Chair I Wayan Suarta stated that the Suwung landfill closure policy is consistently announced without proper, well-developed solutions.

“But if this continues, who wouldn’t be tired and angry, just like we are disappointed? It seems strange that a government organisation with expert teams cannot deliver this properly,” Suarta told detikBali on Monday, 2 March 2026.

Suarta believes the government is playing with public sentiment through unclear policies that result in continuous delays to the landfill closure.

“We feel like we are being toyed with, but tomorrow I want there to be clarity in the plan. Don’t extend and postpone it for two or three months continuously - we are exhausted by this,” Suarta said.

This disappointment was intensified when the self-management organisations received information that Suwung landfill would remain open until June 2026. As a result, Suarta cancelled a planned protest action scheduled for that day at the Bali and Nusa Tenggara Environmental Control Centre headquarters of the Environment Ministry in Renon, Denpasar.

However, the closure delay until June was not accompanied by an official written letter from the ministry. “There is no written letter; it was only communicated verbally to us,” Suarta added.

Suarta also met with the Head of Bali’s Environmental Affairs Office, who indicated that the letter was still being drafted at the ministry level.

“But to this day we still don’t have the letter, which means we don’t know if we will receive it - that’s a government matter, perhaps at the level of the mayor, then the regent, or perhaps the governor,” he explained.

For context, Suwung landfill was originally planned to close by the end of 2025. Following pressure from the public, who argued that Bali’s waste management system was not yet optimal, the local government requested a postponement until February 2026.

As of 1 March, Suwung landfill was supposed to cease operations. However, the Bali Self-Managed Waste Management Forum believed that waste still needed to be deposited at Suwung because the waste management system had not yet reached full capacity. Consequently, the landfill reopened today.

To date, there has been no response from Bali’s Environmental Affairs Office Head, I Made Dwi Arbani, regarding this postponement.