City Council pulls plug on polluting laundry plants
City Council pulls plug on polluting laundry plants
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The City Council is urging authorities to close down dozens of
garment processing plants that launder jeans in the Sukabumi
Selatan subdistrict of West Jakarta, due to the pollution they
cause to nearby rivers and streams.
Mukhayar, the City Council's vice chairman for Commission D on
development issues, said that most of the 50 or so laundry plants
in the area held home industry licenses.
Residents in the vicinity have protested against the plants
for allegedly dumping their toxic wastes directly into nearby
waterways.
"The best solution to this problem is to return the area to
its original function and close down businesses that do not have
permits," Mukhayar told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
The Sukabumi Selatan sub-district, including the site where
the laundry plants are located, has been designated as a
residential area.
"We will be taking action soon to close down the unlicensed
laundries. And if necessary, we will process these matters as
criminal cases," Mukhayar threatened.
"If they (the laundries) do not cooperate, then the next step
will be to call in related institutions and clear them out of
there. Repressive action has to be taken to prevent the impact of
pollution, such as happened in Buyat, from happening in Jakarta,"
he said.
Head of Sukabumi Selatan subdistrict Taufik Chandra said that
some home industry garment producers had purchased adjacent lots
over the years, constructed workshops and installed large
machines.
"Usually the owners have between 5 and 8 laundry machines,"
said Taufik, adding that none of the owners have permits.
Workers, however, are worried about their jobs if authorities
decide to close down the plants.
"There are more than 50 laundry plants in this area. If they
close these businesses, where will we work?" asked Hendra, 21, an
employee of Haji Bakri's garment processing plant in Community
Unit 4. "Up to five thousand people could lose their jobs."
He explained that each laundry worker earned between Rp 20,000
and Rp 50,000 per day, depending on the size of consignments sent
in by garment factories.
Natri, 17, said she may as well go back to her village in
Central Java if the plants were closed down.
The garment processing plants use a number of harsh chemicals
to cause jeans to fade in order to satisfy the fashion dictates
of the market.
Waste from these jeans laundries contains a cocktail of
different chemicals that include fabric dyes, which are extremely
toxic to the environment and which have been classified as
"dangerous and deadly" by the head of the West Jakarta Industry
and Trade Agency, Purnomo.
Presently, the Pesangrahan River and the Sekretaris River
along with a number of drainage channels have become badly
polluted by waste dumped directly into them from the laundries.