Jakarta's garbage fiasco worsens
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta city administration has accused the Bekasi municipality of blackmail, saying it considered not to continue using Bantar Gebang as its garbage dump.
"We feel that we are being blackmailed as the municipality demanded too much from the city. We would reject the demands and are ready to close the dump," Acting head of the City Sanitation Agency Irzal Djamal said during a hearing with the city council's commission D for development affairs on Thursday.
Irzal revealed that on Dec. 15 the Bekasi municipality had demanded the development of a hospital and water pipelines in Bantar Gebang in exchange for the reopening of the dump which had been closed for almost a week.
The mayoralty then also demanded that the hospital should be equipped with an emergency unit and a x-ray facility, he said.
The Bantar Gebang district chief reportedly demanded a car while local residents demanded compensation for their rice farms which were allegedly polluted by the dump.
Irzal said the municipality even asked for compensation of Rp 100 billion (US$10 million) for environmental damage caused by the garbage during the past 10 years.
"So we are now buying time. We are starting the development of the hospital and pipeline, but we will not complete them by the Jan. 31 deadline," he said.
Should the municipality close the 104-hectare dump, Jakarta will dump its daily output of 25,000 cubic meters of trash at new locations, including Marunda in North Jakarta and Tegal Alur and Kamal in West Jakarta.
Separately, Bekasi's spokesman Udi Zubaidi denied all the accusations, saying the new terms for the continued use of the dump are still being discussed.
"We have yet to present our new terms besides the hospital and water pipeline. It was reported that the local residents' rice farms are now dried, but they have yet to mention any compensation," Udi told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
At Thursday's hearing the council supported the administration's plan to close the dump and use other dumps.
"We should keep our dignity. It's strange that the capital of the country was afraid on blackmail by a municipality," councillor Amarullah Asbah of the Golkar Party said.
Irzal said the administration had allocated Rp 18.5 billion for the construction the 71-hectare Marunda site while some Rp 10 billion was allocated for the 20-hectare Tegal Alur and 40- hectare Kamal dumps.
"It was a super crash program to anticipate the closure of the Bantar Gebang dump. The construction would be started this month," he added.
The construction of Tegal Alur and Marunda dumps would need at least three months.
But in fact, as of Thursday, none of the alternative dumps were ready to accommodate Jakarta's garbage and there were no indications that the administration was making preparations for its planned application of a sanitary landfill system.