Bogor reject garbage plan

Bogor reject garbage plan

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

Bogor residents raised strong objections on Friday to the city's plan to dump their garbage in the Bogor area, over fears of environmental damage.

"Our water will be polluted, and they have not discussed the issue with local residents. Many will oppose the plan," said 38- year-old Sudarma, a resident of Bojong village.

The local council also backs the people.

"The (Jakarta) administration cannot just come here and dump their trash ... even we are having difficulty finding a place to use as our final dumping site," said M. Soleh Benyamin, a councillor at Bogor municipal office.

Bojong village, not Jonggol as announced by Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso earlier, had been proposed as an alternative dump site in early March. This had been agreed to by the Bogor municipal administration with the issuance of an official letter, according to Iya, a member of the administrative staff at Bogor municipal office.

Sutiyoso said that the city would rent the land, belonging to PT Wira Golfindo Sarana, for Rp 30 billion a year.

Nadi, from the Bojong village office, said that it was part of a 40-hectare plot of land owned by PT IKA Tria Serangkai.

"It was bought from local villagers at the price of Rp 10,000 per square meter in 1996," he said.

The garbage dump is to be managed using the sanitary landfill system.

At Bantar Gebang, which will be officially closed on Monday, garbage was supposedly managed using the sanitary landfill system. Yet in practice, garbage was just piled up out in the open.

The roads to the designated location in Bojong are in a very poor condition, due to the heavily laden trucks that pass the road daily on the way to a nearby ceramic factory.