Bojong residents raise stink over garbage dump
Bojong residents raise stink over garbage dump
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
For the second time, villagers from Bogor regency rallied at City
Hall and the City Council building against plans to build a
garbage treatment facility in Bojong village.
Four hundred villagers arrived in nine buses to protest the
construction of the facility, owned by PT Wira Gulfindo Sarana.
Once completed, the facility would be able to treat 1,500 tons of
garbage every day.
"Don't dump garbage in our village. We don't want to become
victims like the people of Bantar Gebang," read one of the dozens
of banners displayed by the protesters.
The banner referred to the dispute over a dump in Bantar
Gebang. People living near the site have complained of the
environmental damage caused by the dump, which is scheduled to be
closed by the end of this year.
The protesters also dumped garbage on the grounds of City Hall
on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan and City Council on Jl. Kebon Sirih,
both in Central Jakarta.
Lilies, 45, whose house would be located adjacent to the
planned waste treatment facility, said most people in the area
had been told by officials of PT Wira Gulfindo Sarana that the
land would be used for a tile factory.
Ujang, 25, said he had been paid Rp 100,000 (US$11.80) by
village officials for signing a blank paper that eventually was
turned into a petition supporting the garbage treatment facility.
"They said the money was a gift from Pak Rahmat, the factory
owner. We believed everything they said," he told The Jakarta
Post during the protest.
The secretary of the Communication Forum for Environmental
Care, Triyasa Cahya Putra, said the villagers were at the City
Council because their complaints to the Bogor legislative council
and the Bogor regency administration had not received a positive
response.
"We come to tell you that the people of Bojong do not want
garbage from Jakarta," he told City Council Commission D for
developmental affairs.
The proposed garbage treatment facility in Bojong would help
replace the Bantar Gebang dump.
A similar protest against the project took place in June,
involving 500 people from several villages that would be affected
by the project.