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.