Hazardous waste a threat in RI's major cities: WB expert

Hazardous waste a threat in RI's major cities: WB expert

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Hazardous industrial waste is becoming an increasing threat to
the country's biggest cities, including Jakarta, Semarang in
Central Java, and Surabaya in East Java, according to an expert.

Hazardous waste, by itself or after coming into contact with
other waste, has characteristics such as chemical reactivity,
toxicity, corrosiveness or a tendency to explode, posing a threat
to human health and the environment.

Thomas E. Walton, head of the World Bank team that drafted The
Indonesia Environment Monitor 2003 report, said here over the
weekend that the possibility of bodies of water becoming
contaminated with toxic and inorganic waste was increasingly
becoming a concern in regions with high concentrations of home
industries and large textile dyeing industries.

"Anecdotal evidence suggests that significant quantities of
toxic and hazardous waste are being disposed in uncontrolled
landfills and dumped in rivers with other industrial waste," says
the report, which was jointly unveiled on Saturday by the Office
of the State Minister for the Environment and the World Bank.

Jakarta, Semarang and Surabaya are home to a wide range of
home industries and large textile dyeing industries, almost all
of them without proper waste disposal methods.

"Factories in major cities usually dispose their hazardous
waste in their industry compound dumping site or local dumping
site. But the dumping site is not appropriate and uncontrolled,"
Walton told The Jakarta Post.

It was conservatively estimated that Indonesia produced more
than one million tons of hazardous waste in 2000.

The report, which calls for concerted efforts to reduce
pollution, is supported by data from a number of institutions,
including the government, the Indonesian Forum for the
Environment (Walhi) Jakarta, and the Indonesian Biodiversity
group.

Walton said major industrial cities outside Jakarta were
unlikely to bring their hazardous waste to the Cileungsi
hazardous waste treatment plant, near Jakarta, for financial
reasons.

The Cileungsi treatment plant is the only facility in
Indonesia that has processing capabilities as well as a secure
storage area and a lined landfill for the disposal of stabilized
and low-level toxins.

In 2002, the Cileungsi plant treated over 32,000 tons of
hazardous waste, an increase from about 30,000 tons in 2001 and
27,000 tons in 2000.

Walton urged the administrations in major industrial cities to
set up databases on hazardous waste in their cities, in order to
provide information and monitor the types of hazardous waste,
locations and quantities.

Monitoring also should be conducted frequently and
concentrations of mercury, copper and chromium should be measured
regularly, Walton said.

Yanuardi Rasudin, deputy assistant in charge of mining,
energy, oil and gas at the Office of the State Minister for the
Environment, said the monitoring and regular measuring of
hazardous waste should be increased to minimize the threat of
toxic waste to the environment and human health.

He said there had been a positive trend over the last two
years of firms seeking licenses to treat their own hazardous
waste, in response to a government program to environmentally
audit companies that pollute the environment.

As of November 2002, the government has issued 219 licenses to
companies that produce hazardous waste to treat their own waste.

"What we should do now is monitor the hazardous waste
management of companies to see whether they are complying with
our requirements," he said.