City likely to see garbage crisis early next year
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Due to continued environmental problems, the Bekasi administration might close again Bantar Gebang dump early next year, forcing the Jakarta administration to look into three alternative dump sites in the city, an official said on Thursday.
"Bekasi will possibly close again the (Bantar Gebang) dump. But we are now developing other alternative dumps," head of the Jakarta Sanitation Agency Slamet Limbong told reporters at City Hall.
The three alternatives are Cilincing, North Jakarta; Tegal Alur, West Jakarta and Bojong in Bogor, West Java.
Slamet said a team comprising experts from the University of Indonesia and Bekasi University, was still evaluating environmental problems in the 100-hectare Bantar Gebang dump.
He claimed that it was still feasible to use the dump, which has been used since 1986, for the next five years. "But, we will comply with whatever the team suggests. The team has not completed its evaluation yet," he said.
Bekasi Mayor Nonon Sonthanie earlier revealed that the municipality may cancel its contract with Jakarta, saying that the dump would be closed as it caused environmental damage.
Nonon accused Jakarta of failing to fulfill its agreement to rectify environmental damage in the area around the dump site. Jakarta made the promise in January before signing a new memorandum of understanding on extending the use of Bantar Gebang as the garbage dump for the city.
Due to the damage, Bekasi closed the dump for a week in December last year, causing a garbage crisis since thousands of tons of trash was left uncollected in Jakarta.
Jakarta had paid Rp 14 billion in compensation to the Bekasi administration for the reopening of the dump which reportedly polluted residents' wells and caused air pollution in the surrounding area.
Besides continuing environmental damage, Bekasi councillors asserted that the Rp 14 billion managed by the Bekasi administration had been corrupted. They revealed some of the money was used to develop roads built by companies owned by activists of non-governmental organizations.
The councillors found last week that the newly built roads were damaged. The activists, who had earlier criticized Bekasi and Jakarta during the garbage crisis, had no expertise in building roads.
Councillors said the money was also used to purchase cars and computers for district offices in Bekasi which had no connection with the garbage dump problem.
Many saw the demand for the closure of the dump as a ploy of the municipality to "blackmail" the Jakarta administration into paying more money to the Bekasi administration.
Since the dispute on the garbage dump, Jakarta has signed several memorandums of understanding with local and foreign companies to manage the city's garbage which amounts to 5,000 tons a day.
Slamet revealed on Thursday that construction work on the three dumps, a 4.5 hectare plot in Tegal Alur, West Jakarta, a 10-hectare site in Cilincing, North Jakarta and 25 hectares of land in Bojong, Bogor regency, would begin in December.
He said the West Jakarta dump would use Canadian technology to process 1,000 tons of garbage a day into solid and liquid fertilizer.
The Cilincing dump which would process 1,500 tons of garbage into electricity, among other things, will be managed by a joint venture company comprising a Chinese firm, state-owned electricity company PT PLN and the city administration.
The dump in Bojong Gede is owned by a private company which has reportedly secured a permit from the regency.
Slamet claimed that the processing costs in the new dumps would be cheaper, at about Rp 53,000 per ton compared with that of Bantar Gebang that currently reached Rp 60,000 per ton.