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.