Garbage piles up in Bandung ahead of Asia-Africa Summit

Garbage piles up in Bandung ahead of Asia-Africa Summit

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Uwe works at a photocopy kiosk on Jl. Tamansari, near Jl. Ganesha
intersection in Bandung city. For the last two weeks, the
26-year-old woman has worn a mask to work.

It is not just the pollution that bothers her but the stench
from hundreds of cubic meters of garbage piled up at Tamansari
garbage depot, which is located right in front of the kiosk. Not
to mention the swarms of flies that the rubbish attracts.

In fact, the kiosk can no longer be seen from the road due to
the huge mound of garbage.

"It's not just the stench, but people are reluctant to come to
my kiosk because they are nauseated by the smell and the puddles
of slimy water in front of the kiosk," said Uwe recently.

Mounds of garbage can be observed all over the city. At the
garbage collection depot on Jl. Puter, for instance, residents
have complained about maggots crawling out of the depot and onto
the street.

Residents of neighborhood unit two in Sindangjaya, Arcamanik,
East Bandung, have temporarily refused to store garbage from
three neighboring units at their depot. As a result, hundreds of
residents of the three neighborhood units have nowhere to dispose
of their household trash.

The problem of waste disposal is without a doubt worsening in
Bandung, which is of particular concern as the Asian-African
Summit (AAS) is drawing near.

West Java Governor Danny Setiawan has personally asked Bandung
Mayor Dada Rosada to find a solution to the problem as soon as
possible. The city needs to be cleaned up for the arrival of
hundreds of dignitaries from Asian and African countries to
attend the summit on April 23 and April 24, the governor said.

The waste problem was brought to light three weeks ago when
Leuwigajah dump in South Cimahi was closed following the garbage
slide tragedy on Feb. 21, in which at least 143 residents were
killed.

Bandung Sanitation Office head Awan Gumelar, who is now under
city arrest due to alleged mismanagement at Leuwigajah dump, said
that his office could only dispose of about 1,000 cubic meters of
garbage daily. However, the volume of waste being dropped at
collection depots has reached more than 6,000 cubic meters per
day.

"In the meantime, we dispose of the garbage at the Jelekong
and Pasir Impun dumps in East Bandung, but their capacities are
only 1,000 cubic meters each per day. If we dump all the garbage
there, residents will complain because we haven't prepared the
infrastructure yet," said Awan.

Jelekong dump in Banjaran, South Bandung, is only 10 hectares,
while the Pasir Impun dump is five. He said negotiations were
underway to reopen the 20-hectare Cieunteung dump in Baleendah,
Bandung regency.

However, the Bandung regental administration is yet to approve
the move.

Bandung Deputy Regent Eliyadi Wargaraharja, said if Bandung
municipality were to operate the dump in his regency then the
matter needed to be discussed in detail beforehand, so that it
would not cause a loss on his side.

"A deal cannot be reached just like that. We have to calculate
everything carefully so that a case like Leuwigajah does not
happen again," said Eliyadi.

The positive side of Bandung city's garbage problem is that it
has scared some residents into adopting an environmentally
friendly lifestyle.

Yeti, 40, a housewife in Buahbatu, has started to reduce her
household waste. "I have started to separate organic from
inorganic waste. I used to throw everything out without blinking
an eyelid, but not now," she said.