House demands closure of Bojong dump

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Members of the House of Representatives recommended on Tuesday the closure of the controversy Bojong dump in Bogor, south of Jakarta, as its presence violated land zoning regulations.

A team of legislators, set up following violent protests by Bojong residents against the dump that led to riots, also said that the local administration should be held responsible for its presence, while the dump must be relocated.

Team head Sonny Keraf, from House Commission VII for energy and the environment, said the construction of the site had violated Bogor Bylaw No. 27/1998 stipulating that the area in question is designated as a residential, tourism and agricultural area only.

"Thus, (the Bogor administration) also violated Law No. 42/1992 on land zoning which stipulates that it is imperative to abide by the stipulated zoning regulation," the former state minister of the environment said.

This fact, Sonny added, had even been acknowledged by both the dump users, the Jakarta and Bogor administrations, during previous hearings with the team.

"Besides, the dump is hazardous to local residents as it is located near a residential area and could affect their health," he said.

Constructed in 2003, the dump was meant to take in tons of waste from Jakarta, which had been facing difficulties handling its growing waste of over 6,000 tons per day.

When fully operational, the Bojong facility would have the capacity to process 2,000 tons of waste.

Jakarta currently relies on its Bantar Gebang dump, located in Bekasi, to handle its daily trash.

During the last trial run of new waste processing equipment at the Bojong facility in November last year, the dump operator PT Wira Guna Sejahtera was stopped by angry residents who had earlier attempted to boycott the trial by blocking the road to dump trucks.

The Bojong residents later gathered outside the site to protest, but the protest turned violent after several people vandalized PT Wira's office.

As the police fired shots into the crowd to stop the riot, several residents were injured and had to be hospitalized.

A number of police officers were severely reprimanded for using force to quell the protest, and several Bojong residents were detained and tried for causing damage to the dump.

Members of the Bogor Regency Council have said they would prefer that the dump suspended its operations indefinitely and, if possible, found a new site.

Since the construction of the site was against the regulation on land zoning, said Sonny, the Bogor administration had also violated government regulation No. 27/1999 on environmental impact analysis, which the administration must conduct before granting an approval for a dump site.

"They should have never have given the go ahead to the dump operator without conducting the environmental analysis for the proposed dump site, aside from the fact that there was no mechanism to inform the public on how this dump would affect the neighboring area," he said.