Jakarta administration to sue Bekasi if it closes Bantar gebang dumping site
Annastashya Emmanuelle, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city administration will take legal action should the Bekasi municipal administration proceed with the closure of a dump used by Jakarta and located at Bantar Gebang, Bekasi, Jakarta's Governor Sutiyoso said on Thursday.
However, this would be the last resort, Sutiyoso said, and negotiations on the Bantar Gebang dispute were still ongoing.
On Wednesday, Bekasi legislative assembly speaker Ismail Ibrahim said that further negotiations were unnecessary as the assembly would soon issue a recommendation to Bekasi Mayor Nonon Sonthanie that the dump be closed prior to the previously agreed closure date in 2003.
The Bekasi municipality has been demanding that the Jakarta administration appoint a private company to properly treat the waste, set up an independent team to evaluate the work, and hand over 50 hectares of the 104-hectare dump to Bekasi. Otherwise, the municipality has threatened to close down the site by the end of the year due to the environmental damage it has caused.
Jakarta agreed to set up an independent team for the evaluation and appointed a private company, reportedly from Australia, to manage the dump, but has refused to hand over 50 hectares of the land.
Sutiyoso said that the Bekasi administration should not make hasty decisions that would only create new problems.
"We will take legal action against them because Bekasi and the Jakarta administration signed a legally binding contract. They cannot act unilaterally like this," Sutiyoso told reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony marking the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the city administration and PT Bio Fertilizer Indonesia (BFI).
Under the proposed agreement, PT Bio Fertilizer Indonesia will handle 220 tons per day of city garbage delivered by the Jakarta Sanitation Department.
Organic waste will be converted into fertilizer, while non- organic waste will be separated so as to be sold later to industrial users.
Jakarta produces 6,250 tons, or 25,000 cubic meters, of garbage daily, but 20 percent of it is not collected by the city, and most of this ends up being thrown into rivers, thus causing further environmental damage.
"The first plant will be established as a pilot project, and we then plan to build nine other units in the Jakarta area," said Wiradidjaja, the president director of PT BFI.
The project will cost US$5 million.
Over the next nine months, BFI is expected to complete its processing plant, located on city land in Duri Kosambi, West Jakarta, and is expected to begin operations shortly thereafter.
Garbage disposal remains a major problem as the city administration frequently claims it lacks the money needed to tackle the matter effectively. Ironically though, in the last city budget funds originally allocated for the procurement of garbage trucks were diverted to purchase official cars for city councillors.
The City Sanitary Agency has allocated Rp 90 billion in handling garbage for this year,