Denpasar strives to deal with growing mountain of garbage

Text and photo by I Wayan Juniartha

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): It was no usual stroll-in-the morning stuff. Forget about a green city park with fresh air and birds singing. And sneakers, or any other sports shoes, would definitely be out of place.

Industrial-strength boots are what is needed to explore the Suwung Main Garbage Dump, some 15 kilometers south of here.

It was scorching at only 9 a.m. and the air reeked with the smell of putrefying garbage.

A file of garbage trucks entered the facility -- 10 hectares of open fields with makeshift fences here and there -- bringing with them garbage from every corner of Denpasar city and Badung regency.

Each truck was greeted by dozens of scavengers, all properly dressed for the job with long-sleeved shirts and wide brimmed bamboo hats, ready to pick out anything that may be worth reselling.

All the bustle of activity could not hide the fact that the facility has seen better days.

A public official at the site revealed how lack of proper equipment and technology, and the ever-increasing flow of garbage, had stretched the facility to the maximum.

"The city desperately needs a new dump, or a new method and technology to manage its waste," he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Newly released data from local environmental non-governmental organization, the Wisnu Foundation, showed that in 2000 the people of Denpasar produced 1,029 cubic meters of garbage each day, a huge 100 cubic meter increase from 1999.

In addition, 345 tourist facilities in Denpasar produced about 344 cubic meters of garbage each day.

"Without proper management, in one year's time the dumped garbage will be the size of a soccer field, and as tall as the Grand Bali Beach hotel, reaching 72 meters in height," Wisnu's Yoga Atmadja said.

There was a plan to acquire more land for the facility, but it was bound to trigger an outcry from conservationists since a precious mangrove forest surrounds most of the Suwung facility.

The approach of enlarging the dump would require additional land each year. Wisnu Foundation estimated that by 2010 Suwung would need another 7.33 hectares, in 2015 it would need 11.5 hectares and an additional 16.5 hectares by 2020.

The administrations of three regencies -- Badung, Tabanan, Gianyar -- and Denpasar city recently deliberated on a new plan to build a joint garbage dump. The mammoth facility reportedly would be built on a barren open field somewhere in Tabanan area.

Again, there is likely to be public opposition, this time from locals who are sure to be unhappy about living next to a dump.

"What Denpasar needs is a new garbage management system. Give people more responsibility to manage their own garbage. There needs to be a financial restructuring of the provincial and regencies budgets over the fund for their respective garbage management agencies," environmentalist Made Suarnatha said.

Community based

Wisnu Foundation's activists have prepared a model for what they term a community-based garbage management system, a marriage of community participation and recycling.

In the system, each household would be responsible for separating organic and inorganic garbage. The local village or community organization would then organize a way to transfer the household garbage to the temporary dumping site.

"The village can cover the transportation cost by reselling anything worth reselling of its garbage to a third party, and by doing so it will reduce the volume of garbage at the temporary dumping site," said Yoga Atmadja.

Meanwhile, the government-run garbage agencies would only be responsible for transporting the garbage from the temporary site to the main dump site.

"Based on our experience almost 66 percent of the total volume of garbage can be recycled or resold. So only 34 percent would reach the main site," Yoga Atmadja said.

The good news is that Denpasar already has 167 self-run community garbage management groups, but they do not have sufficient knowledge of recycling. Those groups would be a good foundation to implement the new system.

Government agencies do almost all the work in the current system, with the community and individual participation being only 12 percent and 20 percent respectively.

Another major concern is funding. Suarnatha pointed out how in 1998 the government-run Denpasar Garbage Management Agency spent almost 41 percent of its annual Rp 10.1 billion provincial budget on routine expenditure, such as for the salaries of its around 1,000 workers, and not on program expenditure.

"It needs to be immediately restructured," Suarnatha said.

"The provincial and regency administration should also start allocating more money for their garbage management systems, perhaps by launching incentive programs for private companies and individuals that have committed themselves to eco-friendly garbage treatment efforts."