City to relocate laundries over pollution woes
City to relocate laundries over pollution woes
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Amid residents' complaints of water pollution caused by laundry
plants in the Sukabumi Selatan subdistrict, West Jakarta,
the city administration said it would seek to relocate the plants
to industrial estates and require them to treat their liquid
waste.
"They can move to other locations designed for industrial
estates. Of course, they have to equip themselves with waste
treatment facilities, otherwise, we'll just be moving the problem
somewhere else," City Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo told reporters
at City Hall.
Fauzi asserted that the administration may only allow the
operation of home industry laundries that provide services to
neighborhood customers, given the designated status of the
subdistrict as a residential estate.
Currently, at least 50 garment processing plants laundering
jeans from textile markets in the city have been operating in the
area alongside several home industry laundries. All of them dump
their untreated liquid waste into waterways causing severe
pollution to the Pesanggrahan River and the Sekretaris River.
The City Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD) said the
administration was preparing two sites in Semanan in West Jakarta
and Pulogadung in East Jakarta to relocate the polluting plants.
"We are also looking into the possibility of providing a waste
treatment facility there as it will be very costly for the
factories to afford it themselves," the agency's head, Kosasih
Wirahadikusumah, told The Jakarta Post.
He did not detail the cost of the facility.
"We'll need six months to persuade the owners of the laundry
plants to relocate their businesses. The relocation process
itself will take two or three months," Kosasih added.
He admitted that the administration would not take any sterner
action against the owners of the plants for fear of "social
unrest", ignoring the fact that the plants are violating
prevailing regulations by polluting the environment and by
operating without necessary permits.
"We have to bear in mind that the operation of these labor-
intensive enterprises has helped the administration in providing
job opportunities to residents," he argued.
Each plant employs between 40 and 50 workers.
Aside from pollution concerns, local residents have filed a
complaint to the City Council against the operation of the plants
because of the powerful water pumps that they use to draw ground
water that has resulted in their own shallow wells drying up.
They complained that they had to pay out money to purchase clean
water everyday.