Garbage incinerators operated inefficiently

Garbage incinerators operated inefficiently

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

While the City Sanitation Agency is rocked by alleged graft
related to the purchase of 10 incinerators funded by last year's
city budget, the facts show that a number of incinerators that
were purchased earlier were not properly operated.

Saidin, 56, an operator of a waste incinerator in Lenteng
Agung subdistrict, South Jakarta, said that the incinerator could
not be operated efficiently as he did not receive enough kerosene
from the South Jakarta Sanitation Office.

"We should have received 90 liters of kerosene per day to
operate the incinerator, but I only got 50 liters. I do not know
where the other 40 liters goes," he told The Jakarta Post on
Tuesday.

Due to the lack of fuel, Saidin said he had to make the best
of the kerosene he had. Instead of pouring the kerosene inside
the tank of the stove to burn the waste, Saidin just pours the
fuel over the waste directly and sets fire to it.

As a result, the process produces a large amount of smoke and
is against environmentally friendly waste management techniques,
an essential objective of burning waste in an incinerator in the
first place.

The incinerator, if operated full-time, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30
p.m., could burn up to 14 cubic meters per day, according to
Saidin.

It is one of five incinerators that were purchased using the
2000 city budget, but Saidin said the one in Lenteng Agung
started to operate in June 2001.

Last month, some city councillors revealed alleged graft in
the purchase of 10 new incinerators using the Rp 3.2 billion
funds of the 2001 city budget.

Head of City Sanitation Agency Slamet Limbong has admitted the
irregularities, saying they were perpetrated by his predecessor,
Saksono Soehodo, who was dismissed by Governor Sutiyoso in
December over his failure to resolve garbage problems in the
capital.

Critics say the failures in waste management have had much to
do with rampant corruption in the agency.

Tarsa, 50, another incinerator operator at Petamburan
subdistrict, Central Jakarta, said that the burning machine was
operated only once every two days due to the limited supply of
fuel provided by the Central Jakarta sanitation office.

"If we operated it every day, we would need a lot of fuel,"
Tarsa told the Post on Monday, adding that the incinerator could
only burn about eight cubic meters per day.

Tarsa also said that he could only deal with around half of
the amount of garbage brought to the incinerator station. The
other half was carried to Bantar Gebang dump.

Although the incinerator in Petamburan has not been
functioning optimally, a new incinerator that was purchased by
the 2001 budget, was also positioned at the same site.

Limbong argued that his agency had found it difficult to seek
a place for the new incinerator.

He added that so far the city administration had 15
incinerators. Five were funded by the 2000 city budget while 10
were funded by the 2001 budget.

This year the city administration plans to purchase some 25
more incinerators.

But Limbong could not guarantee that all 25 incinerators would
be purchased this year, saying that his agency still had no idea
where to place the machines.

"We set a target to purchase 25 incinerators this year, but
implementation depends on the availability of land for the
project," Limbong told the Post on Tuesday.

The city produces at least 25,000 cubic meters of household
garbage per day. Most of the waste is disposed of at the Bantar
Gebang dump site in Bekasi. Last December, Bekasi closed the dump
due to environmental damage. The two administrations later signed
a new MoU that lasts until the end of the year and which could be
extended until 2003.

In the meantime, the city is making an effort to handle the
waste by signing a cooperation agreement with an American company
on how to deal with the household waste, while an Australian
company has agreed to invest in the management of human waste.