City to cunstruct two new garbage processing plants

JAKARTA (JP): The city is to get two new garbage processing plants in an effort to solve lingering disposal problems.

Head of the City Sanitation Agency, M. Subasir, said yesterday that the new plants will be in Duri Kosambi, West Jakarta, and Sunter, North Jakarta.

He said that the new plants will be able to accommodate a total of 3,800 tons of garbage per day, with the Duri Kosambi accommodating about 2,800 tons of garbage per day and the Sunter plant processing about 1,000 tons.

"Currently, the agency has only one plant in Cacing, East Jakarta, which handles about 1,000 tons of garbage per day, while the city produces 6,000 tons of garbage per day," Subasir told reporters, adding that the remaining 5,000 tons are sent directly to the final dumping site in Pulo Gebang, Bekasi, without being processed.

"The new plants are expected to overcome this problem because they are much closer than the dump in Bekasi or the waste processing center in Cacing," Subasir said.

Subasir said that the agency is cooperating with private company PT Intan Maskota Maru in constructing the Duri Kosambi garbage plant. The construction is scheduled for completion next year.

The planned Sunter project will be mostly funded by the Japanese government. "The project cost is estimated to be 3,327 million yen," he said.

"When the two plants are completed garbage problems can be overcome, with only 700 tons sent to Pulo Gebang waste dump," Subasir said.

The agency has been complaining that the city's sanitation program is being hindered by many problems, especially transportation.

The agency is operating 729 trucks, while ideally, 1,300 trucks are needed to transport garbage from all over the city to Pulo Gebang every day.

The agency said the number of trucks is therefore too small to cope with the garbage produced by the city's nine million people.

Many residents still prefer dumping garbage into rivers and gutters than disposing of it properly. Records show that more than 4, 300 cubic meters of waste is dumped into gutters, rivers and other improper places each day.

Subasir said that the plant will use sophisticated technology to separate organic and inorganic garbage.

"In further development the plants will also be equipped with recycling machines which will process the garbage into fertilizer," he said. (yns)