Locals trash administration for Bojong dump plan
Locals trash administration for Bojong dump plan
Theresia Sufa and Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post
Bogor
Some 300 residents of Bojong village and surrounding areas in
Bogor regency welcomed Jakarta Sanitary Agency head Selamat
Limbong and entourage with a protest on Friday.
The villagers also threw stones at a waste treatment facility,
breaking several windows.
There were not injuries or arrests during the protest.
"Opening a permanent dump in our village is a sign that
Jakartans want to kill Bojong villagers," read one of the banners
displayed by protesters.
"Garbage is the source of disease," read another banner.
The protesters, mostly women and children, arrived at the
waste treatment facility after hearing that Jakarta Governor
Sutiyoso would visit the site.
The governor did not show up, but that did not stop protesters
from expressing their displeasure to Limbong over Jakarta's plan
to open a waste treatment facility in Bojong.
The new facility, which will be located on a 20-hectare plot
of land, is expected to treat 1,500 of the 6,000 tons of garbage
produced by Jakartans every day. PT Wira Gulfindo Sarana will run
the facility using German technology.
"We cannot accept a dump here because it will cause
environmental damage and health problems such as respiratory
disease," one of the protesters, Oding, 45, told The Jakarta
Post.
"I wish Sutiyoso was here so we could tell him our objections.
Instead of building a dump, the Jakarta administration could have
built a factory to create jobs for locals," he said.
Protests against facility have increased in intensity of late.
Approximately 400 people from the district went to City Hall and
the City Council building in Central Jakarta on Wednesday to
voice their outrage over the proposal.
Limbong, however, said not all of the villagers opposed the
waste treatment facility, which he promised would open as
scheduled.
Separately, Sutiyoso said at City Hall that the protests were
not being organized by locals. He accused non-governmental
organizations of provoking the villagers.
It is vital for Jakarta that the Bojong waste treatment
facility open as scheduled, with the administration planning to
close a 104-hectare dump in Bekasi mayoralty in late December.
Construction of two other facilities on Jl. Cakung Cilincing
in East Jakarta and in Duri Kosambi in West Jakarta has yet to
begin.
Sutiyoso said earlier he would negotiate with Bekasi to avoid
a repeat of the garbage crisis that hit the city in late 2001,
when Bekasi closed Bantar Gebang until Jakarta agreed to pay Rp
14 billion (US$1.65 million) in compensation.