'Dust shower' disturbs Pulo Gadung residents
Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Almost every day, about 150 families in Kampung Sawah, Rawa Terate, East Jakarta, inhale black smoke generated by a steel processing factory that looms over the houses.
Kampung Sawah is only separated by a shallow three-meter-wide river from PT Jakarta Cakratunggal Steel Mills, which produces steel for construction purposes.
"Every morning, the factory belches out white smoke and every evening, it billows out black smoke for hours. We call it a dust shower," Awaluddin, a Kampung Sawah neighborhood chief unit, said last week.
He said that every day, he and his wife had to clean a one- centimeter-thick layer of dust deposited by the shower of dust.
Seen from afar, Kampung Sawah looks like it is being fumigated by the factory, which cloaks the area with suffocating smoke, while dozens of children played cheerfully outdoors.
"Maybe we are quite used to the smoke, but lately it's been getting worse," said Awaluddin, who has lived there since 1984.
Most of the residents have lived there more than 10 years. Their occupations vary from factory workers to motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers and to farmers, who grow rice on about a one- hectare plot of land in front of the houses.
He added that many residents had respiratory problems, including his five-year-old daughter, Amelia.
Amelia was two when she began to have trouble breathing, and Awaluddin took her to Persahabatan Hospital in Rawamangun, East Jakarta, for treatment. Luckily, these days she no longer has problems breathing, but Awaluddin does not really know what caused her illness, even today.
The river is also severely polluted, and it shines black with oil.
The farmers who live in Kampung Sawah use the river water to irrigate their rice fields, the harvests from which are sold in Karawang, West Java.
Because the river is so polluted, the residents use well water for washing and bathing -- they have dug a well of about 12 meters in depth, and pump it up using an electric pump.
However, Awaluddin said that the ground water was also unhealthy.
"We can smell the iron and rust in the water, and if we let the water stand for an hour, it will turn yellowish brown," he said.
Nevertheless, the residents still use it for washing, although they do realize that the water turns their clothes yellow, and at times damages their clothes.
Furthermore, Awaluddin and his neighbors are clueless as to what the water could do to their health, as they use it to bathe, brush their teeth and gargle.
As for drinking water, the residents buy water directly from city water company PAM Jaya, which delivers water in trucks and stores it in two reservoirs in the area.
Most residents blamed the smoke for their respiratory problems, but they have no proof that their illnesses were caused by the pollution.
"It would be good if our neighborhood could be checked once in a while to see whether or not it is still healthy to live here," said Awaluddin, unaware that an air pollution inspection can cost up to Rp 2 million.
He said that maybe the right thing to do was to wait for the authorities to come down and inspect the pollution levels.
Officials at PT Jakarta Cakratunggal, the steel mill which the residents allege causes the pollution, could not be reached for comment.