Holidays leaves mounds of garbage

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Not all Jakarta residents are happy with the extended Idul Fitri holiday, as it is extremely inconvenient for those needing to have their garbage picked up before it turns into a large mound.

Arlene, 35, a resident of Ampera, South Jakarta, complained that the piles of garbage in her neighborhood had turned rotten and smelled putrid.

"I really hate this because the piles attract flies, and some of them even get into my living room," she complained.

Papak, 60, a garbage collector in Rawabunga subdistrict of Jatinegara, East Jakarta, said that it was common for mounds of garbage to appear during the long annual holiday.

"It's no use for me to take the garbage from the household garbage containers because the garbage would only be piled up at the neighborhood dump, since no officers of the City Sanitation Agency are available to take it away," he said.

The Jakarta Post observed on Thursday mountains of garbage in residential areas of Jatinegara, East Jakarta, in Manggarai, South Jakarta, and in Slipi and Kemanggisan, West Jakarta.

Most city streets looked dirtier than normal with plastic bags, bottles, cans, pieces of paper and cardboard being scattered on the ground.

At several markets, such as the Palmerah market in Central Jakarta and the Jatinegara market in East Jakarta, piles of garbage have overflowed onto the streets, smelling of rotten fruit and vegetables.

The Jakarta administration has been on holiday since the eve of Idul Fitri, Nov. 14, and will resume work on Monday.

"You can just imagine, I have to handle a vast area alone because most of the others are taking their Idul Fitri holiday," said a street sweeper with South Jakarta's sanitation office.

City Sanitation Agency head, Selamat Limbong, said that many of his workers took their holidays, leaving many jobs neglected.

"Some garbage truck drivers, for instance, are taking their holiday leave, and forcing their respective unit heads to take over their jobs," Limbong said.

Limbong, however, denied that the absence of his workers had disrupted the day-to-day operation of his agency.

"As usual, we have continued to transport garbage to the Bantar Gebang dump every day since the second day of the Idul Fitri holiday until today," he claimed.

Separately, the head of the agency's waste treatment unit, Amir Sagala, revealed that the amount of garbage taken to the city's dump in Bantar Gebang, Bekasi, had been halved during the holiday period.

Amir attributed the sharp fall to fewer residents staying in the capital, therefore producing less garbage.

"The amount of garbage being taken to the Bantar Gebang dump will return to normal after the holiday when people return from the Idul Fitri break," he said.

Jakarta produces 6,000 tons of garbage every day, with most of it being taken to the Bantar Gebang dump.