Bantar Gebang to remain open
Bantar Gebang to remain open
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Tangerang
Coming as both a relief and a surprise, the Bekasi administration
has finally decided to allow Jakarta to continue to dump its
garbage at the Bantar Gebang dump for an indefinite period
despite its firm refusal earlier.
The decision was made public on Friday when Bekasi Deputy
Mayor Mochtar Muhamad confirmed that an agreement had been made
with the Jakarta administration to extend the use of the dump.
"Starting Jan. 1, 2004, Bantar Gebang dump is open for dumping
from anywhere, including Jakarta, but it will be managed by the
Bekasi administration. The contract with Jakarta will end when
the Bekasi Council endorses a bylaw on the garbage management
company," he was quoted by Kompas as saying.
The decision was made on Dec. 22, with the second extension of
the contract set to expire on Dec. 31.
Jakarta administration spokesman Muhayat gave a moderate
response on Saturday to the decision, which Mochtar said "would
save Jakarta from losing face".
"All decisions about the dump are in Bekasi's hands. We
thanked them for the extension. It was a good decision made to
maintain our co-existence as neighboring administrations," he
told The Jakarta Post by phone.
The Jakarta administration has allocated Rp 47.5 billion
(US$5.59 million) from its 2004 budget for the dump, in which
some Rp 25 billion will be used to pay compensation to the Bekasi
municipality.
The capital has been in limbo over the last two months
following Bekasi's refusal to extend the use of Bantar Gebang,
saying that Jakarta's 6,000 tons of daily garbage has damaged the
environment and endangered people's health in the area
surrounding the dump.
Despite the good news, Jakarta is facing criticism from
another neighbor, the Tangerang municipality, which has accused
the capital of dumping garbage at its Rawa Kucing dump in Kedaung
Wetan subdistrict, Neglasari, on Saturdays over the last month.
Tangerang Mayor Wahidin Halim said he has ordered the
sanitation agency to straighten things out.
"We don't want Jakarta's garbage here. It's unfair to sneak in
and dump garbage at our dump," he said on Saturday.
A resident, Mursid, 54, said a line of Jakarta garbage trucks
would usually come late at night when they were sleeping.
"Stay put until midnight... You'll see garbage trucks neatly
covered by a tarpaulin coming to dump," he told the Post.
An activist of the Indonesian Environmental Watchdog Alliance,
Karya Ersada, said the group had observed that organic and non-
organic waste from Jakarta had been disposed of at the Rawa
Kucing dump.
"We have asked the Tangerang administration to immediately
take action to halt it," he said.