City Hall caught making false statement
City Hall caught making false statement
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city administration has been caught making a false statement
about constructing garbage treatment facilities in three places
with a combined capacity to process 4,000 tons of garbage per day
in anticipation of the closure of the Bantar Gebang dump in
Bekasi mayoralty.
City spokesman Ahyat M. Awe said last week that construction
of garbage treatment facilities in Jonggol, Bogor; Duri Kosambi,
West Jakarta; and Cilincing, East Jakarta, were about 80 percent
complete.
Ahyat said his statement was based on a report by the head of
the City Sanitation Agency, Salamat Limbong, to Governor Sutiyoso
about the readiness of his agency to replace Bantar Gebang dump.
But when The Jakarta Post visited two of the three places --
Duri Kosambi and Cilincing -- on Wednesday, there appeared to be
no construction being done.
In Duri Kosambi, the location is a field planted with various
vegetables, such as spinach and kangkung (water spinach).
Abdul Hamid, a staff member at the sanitation agency who is in
charge of the human waste treatment facility in Duri Kosambi,
said that a six-hectare plot of land, located near the human
waste management center, had been allocated for a garbage
management facility.
"Yes, this is the place for garbage management, but I do not
know when the construction of the facility will begin," Hamid
told the Post.
According to Ahyat, the garbage treatment facility in Duri
Kosambi, which will convert garbage into bio-fertilizer, is
expected to process about 1,000 tons of garbage per day.
Similar circumstances were apparent at the allocated dump site
on Jl. Cakung Cilincing which, according to Ahyat, will process
1,000 tons of garbage per day. The site only housed the garbage
transfer station managed by PT Wira Gulfindo.
About 300 trucks carry waste from Cilincing to Bantar Gebang
every day.
A worker at the transfer station said he knew nothing about
the plan to construct a garbage treatment facility, which Ahyat
said would use "press ball" technology.
"As far as I know, the only garbage facility being developed
is in Jonggol. I know nothing about construction plans for here,"
said the worker.
Ahyat said the capacity of the Jonggol facility would be
around 2,000 tons per day.
Jakarta residents produce some 6,000 tons of garbage per day,
which is dumped at the 104-hectare Bantar Gebang dump site, to
which the Jakarta city administration has contractual rights.
Late on Wednesday, Ahyat apologized for his erroneous
statement, saying that Salamat Limbong had conceded that his
report was wrong. Ahyat said Limbong had corrected his statement,
saying that the only garbage treatment facility being constructed
was at the Jonggol site.
Limbong was not available for comment on Wednesday.
Sutiyoso has stressed that he has ordered the closure of
Bantar Gebang dump, saying the city will be able to manage the
garbage produced by city residents. He also said that the Bekasi
mayoralty would not be allowed to dump garbage at the new sites.
In December 2001, Bekasi closed the Bandar Gebang dump for a
week due to environmental damage. The closure caused a garbage
crisis in the city, with garbage piling up on many streets. The
dump was reopened after talks between the Jakarta administration
and the Bekasi administration and the intervention of President
Megawati Soekarnoputri.