Garbage slide victims demand compensation

Garbage slide victims demand compensation

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

After being left in uncertainty for over two months, victims of
the garbage landslide at the Leuwigajah dumping site in South
Cimahi, West Java, have decided to take the matter to court on
Thursday, demanding compensation of over Rp 41 trillion (US$4.3
billion).

Some 41 affected families, who were accompanied by their
lawyer Johnson Siregar, filed the civil case at the Bandung
district court, indicting West Java governor Danny Setiawan,
Bandung mayor Dada Rosada, Cimahi mayor Itoch Tochija and Bandung
regent Obar Sobarna, as well as Bandung municipality's sanitation
office.

Agus Suhardi, 57-year-old resident of Cilimus hamlet in
Batujajar Timur district, said they took the case to court after
they failed to get compensation from the four administrations, or
from the sanitation office as the manager of the Leuwigajah
dumping site.

"We heard that the Vice President gave money, and the minister
of social services and many other officials gave money. But until
now we haven't received complete assistance. We asked about it
many times, but there's been no response. We can't stand living
under such uncertainty like this," he told Ade Usman from the
court's team of prosecutors.

Mountains of garbage at the Leuwigajah dump collapsed in
February this year, flattening 69 houses and burying 143
residents living below.

After the disaster, the dumping site was closed down, causing
garbage to pile up in temporary dumps. The Leuwigajah dump took
garbage from Cimahi mayoralty as well as the Bandung regency and
mayoralty.

The disaster received much media attention, with Vice
President Jusuf Kalla visiting the site and meeting with
survivors, as well as handing out donations worth some Rp 1
billion from the government.

Donations were also received from the West Java governor,
Minister of Social Services Bachtiar Chamsyah, and from
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab.

Agus, who lost a child and a grandchild in the disaster, said
they were given Rp 1 million each in March to rent a house for
six months after having lived in a makeshift shelter for over a
month.

"It seems like the money is being used to shut us up. In fact,
we don't need money; we need future, because we lost our houses
and jobs (in the disaster)," he said.

Another resident, Sumiati, 53, said she received Rp 500,000
condolence money seven days after the disaster.

Each affected family, she added, also received Rp 1.5 million
40 days after the disaster, and in March they received Rp 1
million each for rent money.

"We're given food, but it's only two packs of instant noodles
and a kilogram of rice per person per day. Do we have to eat like
that all the time? We can't earn money; our only job at the
plantation is now gone as the field is now covered with garbage,"
Sumiati, who lost her two children in the disaster, said as she
broke into tears.

Earlier, the garbage landslide victims had reported their case
to Bandung regental council, but their pleas was not heard.

"It's complicated. All we want is proper compensation," Agus
said.

The residents were demanding compensation of more than Rp 41
trillion, comprising Rp 18.6 million in material losses and Rp 41
trillion in immaterial loss.

"The immaterial loss is what pains them; the stress and other
psychological disturbances they now suffer due to the dumping
site management's recklessness," Johnson said.