Environment Minister: Bantargebang waste landslide an urgent alarm for waste management reforms
Jakarta (ANTARA) — Indonesia’s Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq has characterised the waste landslide at Bantargebang Integrated Waste Processing Site (TPST) as an urgent alarm for Jakarta Provincial Government to halt open dumping waste management methods.
“This incident should not have occurred if waste management followed proper regulations. Bantargebang must serve as a lesson for all of us to immediately reform, for the sake of human life and environmental preservation,” said Environment Minister and Head of the Environmental Control Agency (BPLH) Hanif Faisol Nurofiq in a statement confirmed in Jakarta on Monday.
He described the waste landslide on Sunday 8 March, which caused four deaths, as evidence of systemic failure in Jakarta’s waste management that can no longer be tolerated.
The fatal tragedy, he stated, serves as an urgent alarm for Jakarta Provincial Government to immediately halt open dumping waste management methods, which continue to threaten residents’ and workers’ lives.
The Ministry of Environment/BPLH has now begun comprehensive investigations and strict law enforcement to ensure that the capital’s protracted waste problem does not claim further lives.
The use of open dumping methods at the site was deemed to violate Law No. 18 of 2008 because the existing system is no longer capable of reducing safety risks for residents.
These non-compliant conditions not only threaten human life due to the potential for further landslides but also constitute a source of massive environmental pollution.
The dark history of Bantargebang TPST records a series of fatal tragedies ranging from a residential landslide in 2003 to the collapse of Zone 3 in 2006, which claimed lives and buried dozens of waste pickers.
This pattern of systemic failure continued through January 2026 when subsidence of a ramp pulled three waste trucks to the riverbed, followed by another waste pile collapse in March 2026. This sequence of recurring incidents demonstrates fatal risk from overcapacity at Bantargebang TPST.
The Ministry of Environment/BPLH had previously issued warnings regarding waste management conditions at Bantargebang TPST, which was assessed as having a high risk level.
Through the Deputy for Environmental Law Enforcement on 2 March 2026, a Notice of Commencement of Investigation (SPDP) was issued against several waste management sites assessed as risky, including Bantargebang TPST.
Earlier, Jakarta’s National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) revealed the updated death toll from the Bantargebang TPST waste landslide as four persons.
Based on data as of Sunday 22:00 WIB, the four victims were warung owner Enda Widayanti and Sumine, as well as two waste truck drivers named Dedi Sutrisno and Irwan Suprihatin.