City will process garbage in Duri Kosambi
City will process garbage in Duri Kosambi
JAKARTA (JP): Over the weekend an official from the City
Administration said that it will not only dispose of garbage at
dumping sites outside of the city but will process it instead
into organic fertilizer.
City Sanitary Agency Head, Saksono Husodo, said that the step
was taken following Tangerang's opposition to its plan to develop
a 100-hectare land site in Ciangir, Tangerang, as a replacement
for the Bantar Gebang garbage dumping site in Bekasi.
Tangerang counselors feared that the area around the dump
would be contaminated as has happened in the city's other garbage
dumping site in Bantar Gebang, Bekasi regency.
Bekasi counselors have repeatedly asked Jakarta to close the
65-hectare dumping site since it has caused environmental damage.
The City has decided to close the dump in 2003 according to its
permit although it could be extended until 2006.
Since Tangerang counselors refused the Ciangir plan, the city
administration set up an operation with the private firm PT Bio
Fertilizer Indonesia to process the garbage into organic
fertilizer.
Saksono said that the city had signed a memorandum of
understanding with the company to build a garbage processing
plant in Duri Kosambi, West Jakarta, with an estimated investment
value of Rp 52 billion (US$6.12 million).
He said the city, which produces about 5,000 tons of garbage a
day, will get extra income from the fertilizer produced by the
processing plant.
Separately city counselor Tjuk Sudono of the council
commission D for development affairs questioned the
administration's seriousness in processing the garbage.
"The MOU was signed two months ago but there is still no sign
that the administration would build the plant," Tjuk of the
National Mandate Party said.
He thinks that the agency was reluctant to build the plant
because it might loose its routine budget.
"Since the plant will make a profit, the sanitary agency is
worried that its budget will be reduced," he said over the
weekend. The agency spends more than Rp 90 billion a year to
handle the city's garbage. (jun)