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.