Denpasar battling against rising garbage mountain

By I Wayan Juniarta

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): Denpasar, the provincial capital of Bali, is currently struggling in a fight against a mountainous heap of garbage piled in a corner of the city.

With a population of almost 400,000 people occupying around 123.98 square kilometer plot of land, Denpasar is perhaps overcrowded. Not to mention the escalating number of migrants and refugees who flooded this city in the last few months because of unrest in several places, such as Jakarta, East Timor and the most recent in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara.

Denpasar is considered a safer and promising city for these fleeing people. Yet the rapid demographic growth has caused social and environmental problems, such as garbage.

The city produces about 1,500 cubic meters of garbage, which is equivalent to 300 tons a day. That is up from only 1,200 cubic meters in l996.

The city's landscape and sanitation department acknowledged it faces difficulty in managing the garbage problem and the city's parks.

At present, the department only operates 19 trucks to collect and depose garbage at 14 dump sites outside the city.

The capacity of each dump site ranges from only 40 to 100 cubic meters. Even worse, only a few trucks are in good condition. Therefore, the department can only collect 75 cubic meters a day, leaving about 285 tons of garbage in town.

This means Denpasar accumulates more than 8,000 tons of garbage a month. What a view!

IBM Suthapa, head of the sanitation department, said he and his 963 staff members were trying very hard to clean up the city. They work around the clock in three shifts.

"At almost any hour, you can see our trucks passing the city's main streets loaded with garbage," said Suthapha in his office.

Some of the staff have an additional duty to sweep Denpasar's main streets twice a day. These sweepers are well-known as the "yellow troops" because they wear uniforms of the same color.

"Ideally, we should employ at least 60 trucks and have modern equipment to properly manage garbage collection," he said.

To illustrate the plight of the yellow troops, Suthapha said their working hours start from 5 a.m. and end at 4 a.m the next day.

"Although the work is divided into three shifts, it is very burdensome compared to their meager salary. But most of them are dedicated workers," he added.

Unfortunately, people in Denpasar rarely recognize their hard work. "Many people have a lack of awareness on how to keep their city clean," Suthapha said.

They often dump their garbage wherever they like.

"Many have thrown litter out of their luxury cars," he added.

Household garbage collection is another problem for the yellow troop.

"It is difficult for us to collect household garbage because they do not put them in plastic bags. It is extra work," said a member of the yellow troop.

Suthapa hopes the municipal government can impose stricter sanctions for public litterers in order to raise people's awareness on city cleanliness.

In addition to fines, it would be effective to involve litterers in cleaning work for at least three days.

In some housing complexes, residents have a privately managed service to collect household garbage.

They pay Rp 1000 per family for the collection service.

A home garbage management system is of course inadequate to manage the city's garbage.

It requires a lot of funds and proper technology to deal with the city's garbage.

Such an environmentally friendly garbage management system is not yet popular among residents in Denpasar.

The department is now working together with the Institute of Human Resources Development to train its staff to manage the garbage more professionally and in an environmentally friendly system.

"We should make a breakthrough in dealing with the city's sanitary problems, otherwise Denpasar will be transformed into a dirty rotten city," he said.