Maggot trick prompts action

Maggot trick prompts action

BEKASI (JP): Tired of complaining about the authorities' inaction? Send them parcels of maggots. It might just do the trick.

At least, that's how the piles of trash, that have been growing for months, in the Kranji Baru market were eventually cleaned away on Tuesday, so local traders claim.

They said that some of their colleagues have been sending parcels of maggots, anonymously of course, to the office of the Unit Pasar, the local agency that manages markets in the Bekasi township, with a note urging them to remove the heaps of rubbish that have been collecting just outside Kranji Baru market.

The traders say the trash has deterred residents, from nearby Perumnas I housing complex, from coming and shopping at the market. The sight and the smell from the heap combine to put off potential shoppers, they said.

Complaints lodged with Unit Pasar have gone largely ignored, until last Tuesday, when the agency sent its workers to work all day and night to clear away the heaps of rubbish.

But Kranji Baru is not the only market that has this problem. Most other markets managed by the town's administration appear to have the same problem -- accumulation of uncollected trash. Traders at markets in Tambun, Babelan, Cibitung and Bantargebang say they have similar complaints.

Officials privately say that the authorities do not have enough trash trucks to cover the entire township. In addition, the area still does not have its own garbage dump.

This is an irony, residents find, given that Bekasi has allocated 100 hectares of its land for a garbage dump for neighboring Jakarta. (12)