Holidays leaves mounds of garbage
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.