Green activists made partner by regency
Multa Fidrus, Tangerang
In a new program to fight environmental damage and pollution, the Tangerang regency has taken on a group of activists from several environmental watchdogs as working partners.
Members of the Pandu Lingkungan (Environmental Guides) will work to teach people about the importance of environmental conservation, said Regent Ismet Iskandar on Friday.
The regent sent the 60 members of the group to a four-day training session on environmental conservation being held by the Wanadri Foundation in Lembang, West Java.
"We hope the number of Pandu Lingkungan members will increase from 60 to 500 within two years," Ismet said when seeing off the activists at the office of the environmental management agency.
Ismet acknowledged the regency administration was dealing with various environmental problems, such as the pollution of the Cisadane River from industrial waste and erosion along the regency's 51-kilometer northern coastline.
The head of the regency's environmental management agency, Deden Sugandhi, stressed the importance of the government and residents sharing responsibility for caring for the environment.
He said that in addition to the Pandu Lingkungan, the agency also planned to establish a club of people who would help protect the Cisadane River, as well as other rivers flowing through he regency.
Tangerang regency has proven that it is a step ahead of other regencies when it comes to dealing with environmental issues.
Since last month, the regency has enforced a policy controlling groundwater usage at industrial plants and residential areas. This new policy is an effort to curb land subsidence and the intrusion of seawater into the groundwater.
However, another environmental issue has yet to be resolved, with residents still opposed to the regency's plan to convert the abandoned Pondok Cabe bus terminal in Pamulang into a hi-tech waste treatment facility.
Residents walked out of a meeting held by the sanitation and parks agency on Thursday to introduce the plan officially.
"Although the garbage will be processed by incinerators, it is still right in the center of a residential area," Gunawan, a representative of the residents, told The Jakarta Post.
Gunawan said the residents presented a written rejection of the proposed facility to sanitation agency head Hermansyah, Pamulang district head Ashadi and a representative of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, which would provide the technology for the facility.
"We doubt the validity of the environmental impact analysis they showed us before we walked out of the meeting," he said.
According to Gunawan, the agency was violating the regency's 1983 master plan that determined the specific function of land in the area in question as being for housing and certain home industries only.
Hermansyah said if necessary he would cancel the planned facility, which is expected to cost the regency more than Rp 2 billion (US$224,719).
"But it is a strategic location .... Moreover, if nonorganic waste can be recycled into concrete bricks and organic waste into fertilizer, everybody will be happy," he said.