Jakarta says Bekasi dump to be reopened

Jakarta says Bekasi dump to be reopened

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Amid public outcry over the prolonged waste crisis in the
capital, the Jakarta administration reassured residents that it
would begin using the Bantar Gebang dump in Bekasi later this
week.

"We will reopen the dump. I don't know the exact date... But,
maybe, early this week," assistant to the city secretary for
development affairs, IGKG Suena, told The Jakarta Post over the
phone on Sunday.

According to Suena, Jakarta and Bekasi municipality
administrations had met recently in a discussion on the dump.

This time, he said, Jakarta was considering implementing high
technology to treat the waste rather than the landfill system
presently being used at the 104-hectare site.

"But, (the idea) is a long-term project...We (Jakarta and
Bekasi) will further discuss the matter soon after the reopening
of the dump," he said.

Two weeks of tension between Jakarta and Bekasi led to a waste
crisis in both cities.

Irked local residents had obstructed the entrance to the dump,
which is located next to Bekasi's Sumur Batu dump.

Jakarta closed the dump on Jan. 4 after rejecting Bekasi
deputy mayor Mochtar Mohamad's request for Rp 85,000 (US$10) for
each ton of waste Jakarta dumped. The offer annulled a joint
agreement made earlier between Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso and
Bekasi mayor Akhmad Zurfaih to renew the contract on the dump's
usage, which had expired on Dec. 31.

The Bekasi Council demanded an explanation from the
municipality administration and established a special committee
of inquiry.

Jakarta set mid-January as the deadline for Bekasi to settle
its internal dispute and to make a final and unanimous decision
on the dump.

Indeed, as all eyes were on the dump, House of Representatives
member and husband of President Megawati Soekarnoputri, Taufik
Kiemas, visited those living around Bantar Gebang dump on Sunday,
granting scholarships to poor children.

In the event, with plenty of paraphernalia from the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) evident, Taufik
distributed 21,000 notebooks with covers bearing the face of
Bekasi deputy mayor, Mochtar Mohamad, who is also head of the
party's branch in Bekasi.

When asked, Taufik refused to comment on the dispute between
Jakarta and Bekasi, while citing that "the expert in the case is
the state minister for the environment."

But Bekasi's Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) deputy
head, Agung Wijaksena, questioned Taufik's visit. "Did he make
the visit in his capacity as public official or politician?" he
remarked.