Jakarta dump site plan meets tough resistance

Jakarta dump site plan meets tough resistance

Theresia Sufa
The Jakarta Post
Bogor

Bogor policemen fired warning shots at hundreds of residents of
Bojong and Situsari subdistricts and arrested four who showed
strong resistance to the plan to establish a dump site for the
capital Jakarta in the neighborhood.

The accumulated tension hit the ceiling on Thursday morning
after the residents sighted dozens of police officers who were
deployed near Rawajeler hamlet of Bojong subdistrict, where the
dump site will be established.

After strong opposition to the plan over the last four months,
the residents urged the Bogor administration to install waste
treatment processing units at the site.

About 500 residents joined hands to obstruct traffic by
placing used tires, logs and rocks on the road.

"Both the Bogor administration and the security officers know
we have opposed the establishment of a dump site here because we
know all about Bantar Gebang but they just don't care. They still
send the machines," Rawajeler resident Dudung, 45, told The
Jakarta Post.

Bantar Gebang dump site in Bekasi receives 6,000 tons of
Jakarta household waste every day. The area is highly polluted as
the garbage is just piled into a huge mound with no processing of
the waste, driving residents from the area.

Water and air pollution have been the main complaints arising
from the use of Bantar Gebang dump site. Analysts have blamed the
pollution on the inadequate implementation of the sanitary
landfill system.

When Bekasi administration officials started to complain that
the trash at the site was not properly processed as promised by
Jakarta and threatened not to extend the contract, the Jakarta
administration claimed it had prepared three separate locations
for waste treatment facilities.

One of the three is in Bojong, where the administration is
said to have installed one waste treatment processing plant with
a capacity of 1,500 tons per day that will be ready for use by
January despite the residents' opposition.

Two other facilities in Duri Kosambi, West Jakarta, and on Jl.
Cakung Cilincing in East Jakarta will be ready by June 2004.

When the police started to remove the blockade, the residents
approached to stop them. The police fired warning shots several
times to scare the residents away.

Jaka, 51, of Ciuncal hamlet, Situsari district, tried to
approach the police to show them a copy of a letter issued by the
Bogor City Council which states that the plan to establish the
dump site should not be continued.

Dadang said the police grabbed Jaka and shouted that he was a
provocateur. "They put him in the police truck," he said.

Three other residents: Samad, 25, of Ciuncal hamlet; Apin, 50;
and Taing, 55; both residents of Rawajeler, were also taken away
by the police.

Comr. Heri Santoso, head of the Bogor Police operation unit,
said police were deployed to secure the project to widen the road
connecting Cileungsi and Klapanunggal areas.

"The administration recommenced work after the long holiday by
sending back the heavy equipment for the road construction. But
someone incited the residents by telling them that the equipment
was for the dump site construction," he told reporters.

Heri denied that four residents had been arrested, saying that
only three were taken to Bogor Police Headquarters.

"We summoned them to explain clearly to them that the heavy
equipment was to be used in the road construction. We also asked
them to pass the information on to other residents, because we
cannot afford another delay on the project," he argued.