Bantar Gebang dump may be reopened

Bantar Gebang dump may be reopened

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Bekasi municipality has apparently softened its stance
over the closure of the Bantar Gebang waste disposal site after
the central government intervened on Wednesday in the dump site
dispute, indicating that Jakarta may be able to resume dumping at
the 104-hectare location.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting at the office of the
Directorate General of Administration at the ministry of home
affairs, the Bekasi Council Chairman Ismail Ibrahim, said he
agreed with the central government's position.

"We also respect Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso for dismissing his
sanitation agency chief and his willingness to settle the
problem," Ismail of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
(PDI Perjuangan) said.

However, he diplomatically said that it would not be decided
any time soon whether the mayoralty would allow Jakarta to start
dumping again since the closure decision was made in the
council's plenary session.

Sutiyoso, who attended the meeting at the ministry of home
affairs, noted that Bekasi had apparently given the green light
on the possibility of reopening Bantar Gebang.

A technical team was reportedly working on some preparations
to reopen the dump which handled up to 25,000 cubic meters of
trash per day, until its closure on Monday. When trucks attempted
to dump on Monday they were burned and harassed by locals.

Earlier on Wednesday, the governor officially replaced both
the sanitation agency chief Saksono Soehodo as well as the deputy
chief Soegiono.

Assistant City Secretary for Development Irzal Jamal was
appointed as acting chief of the agency while former city-owned
water firm PAM Jaya's president Rama Budi was appointed as the
agency's deputy chief.

The appointment of Rama Budi might trigger controversy since
he was dismissed from PAM Jaya in 1999 for mismanaging the firm
which suffered massive losses.

The sanitation agency's poor management and unwillingness to
use certain technologies available to it for trash disposal, is
believed to have caused the massive environmental problem.

The dump site was originally intended to be a state-of-the-art
landfill ten years ago, in which most waste would be converted
into fertilizer using certain techniques and equipment, but the
agency apparently ignored all the plans, never purchased the
equipment with its allocated funds and simply piled the trash
higher each day.