Corruption blamed for Surabaya's garbage woes

Ainur R. Sophiaan, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

Surabaya residents and nongovernmental organizations have blamed the city administration's mismanagement and corruption for the accumulating garbage that has been the cause of increasing criticism for months.

Soemarno, a resident in south Surabaya, said garbage accumulating at temporary dumps in the city had a lot to do with waste mismanagement and the leakage of funds collected from residents.

"Under the leadership of Mayor Soenarto, neighborhood unit heads have never paid attention to the collection of garbage in their own area as the city administration stopped disbursing funds collected through the garbage tax," he said here recently.

He added that residents have not only paid a garbage tax to the city administration but also to their neighborhood unit.

Garbage has been accumulating in the city since residents living at garbage dump sites blocked trucks dumping waste in the areas. The blockade was conducted to protest the local administration's failure to fulfill its promise to build health centers in the areas and register residents in a health insurance scheme.

Susianto, executive director of the local office of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi), criticized the city administration for its mismanagement of the garbage disposal dilemma.

"The local administration has allocated Rp 1.4 billion for the maintenance costs of the wastewater plant in the Keputih dump site this year, but only Rp 300 million has been disbursed and the remaining Rp 1.1 billion has been given to numerous parties without any accountability," he said.

He said he could understand why residents had reacted by recently dumping their household waste at the mayor's office.

According to data gathered by The Jakarta Post, the local administration received Rp 14 billion from the garbage tax in 2000 and expected to raise Rp 15.7 billion this fiscal year.

"Of Rp 14 billion collected from the garbage tax in 2000, more than 50 percent has leaked to numerous parties," one city administration employee said, requesting anonymity.

The local administration has reduced its budget for waste management to 3.5 percent of the total city budget, from 10 percent in 2000 and 8.4 percent in 1999. The city administration's total budget has been raised to Rp 464.8 billion this year, from Rp 425.3 billion in 2000.

The employee said a majority of funds had leaked to officials in the local tap water company, the local health ministry office, subdistricts and villages.

Last Sunday, a group of residents dumped their garbage at the mayor's office and the city legislative council building to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with garbage accumulating in their neighborhoods and the creation of temporary dump sites in several subdistricts around the city.

The protesters displayed a large banner reading Masyarakat sepakat Cak Narto = sampah. Jadi harus dibuang! (People agree Soenarto is garbage. So, he must be dumped).

Soenarto is receiving medical treatment at a hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

Sukadar, who coordinated the protest, said the dumping of garbage at the mayor's office and the legislature building was an expression of the residents' disappointment with the local administration's failure to manage the city's garbage and diversion of the garbage tax funds.

"The city's residents are distressed because they have been obliged to pay tax to the authorities but have also been urged to dump their own garbage," he said.

Johan Silas, a city planning professor at the Surabaya Institute of Technology (ITS), regretted that the city administration had shown no vision in managing the city's garbage, suggesting that the problem had a lot to do with the mayor's weak leadership.

"Cak Narto should learn from his predecessor Poernomo and how his administration cooperated with residents in managing their garbage," he said, suggesting that the city administration should also cooperate with more than 3,000 scavengers to help keep the city clean.

He added that the local administration should also learn from Singapore and how the island state managed its waste disposal.