Bojong plant enlists support of House
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The city administration is seeking support of the House of Representatives in its attempts to prove that the Bojong waste treatment facility in Bogor regency will not damage the environment nor cause health problems as feared by local people.
"The plant has been planned in accordance with the normal procedures. We must prove through trials that the plant will have no adverse consequences in the surrounding area," Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo said during a hearing on Tuesday with the House home affairs commission.
He also suggested the establishment of an independent team -- comprising of non-governmental organizations concerned with the environment, sanitation experts and academics -- to monitor the conducting of the trials.
"Should the findings of the team show that the trials at the plant are causing environmental problems, then without doubt we will stop them," he said.
Commission chairman Ferry Mursyidan Baldan said the commission has recommended a temporary closure of the plant until the residents' emotions had subsided.
Protests opposing a trial at the plant on Nov. 22 turned violent, with police officers firing live bullets that injured six residents. Many others later fled their homes for fear of being victimized by the police. Police also charged 18 residents as suspects in the bloody incident.
Six junior police officers have been questioned by National Police investigators but they denied reports that they had used violence in handling the protest.
The plant operator, PT Wira Guna Sejahtera, claimed it would need at least a month to repair the damage to the Rp 110 billion (US$12.23 million) facility caused by the protesters. The attack on the facility had cost the company some Rp 8 billion.
It was expected that the plant would be able to take 2,000 of the 6,000 tons of garbage produced by Jakarta daily waste, as well as 400 tons of garbage from Bogor regency.
Fauzi said the Bojong plant was one of a number of approaches that would be adopted in the future to handle the waste crisis in Greater Jakarta.
He was referring to a joint project sponsored by the World Bank as part of which a contractor would manage all the garbage produced by Greater Jakarta. A feasibility study for the project was still underway.
Seven administrations in the greater Jakarta signed a memorandum of understanding on June 15 on the joint project to manage around 10,000 tons of waste produced by a total of 27 million residents in Jakarta and its satellite cities.
These administrations that signed the MoU were Jakarta, Bogor municipality, Bogor regency, Depok municipality, Bekasi municipality, Tangerang municipality and Tangerang regency.