Most garbage in Tangerang left untransported
Most garbage in Tangerang left untransported
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
Untransported garbage is a complex problem that remains
unresolved here.
Take a look in front of the Harmoni Mas shops along Jl. Gatot
Subroto, Cimone, Tangerang, where piles of garbage are always to
be found. Worse, an offensive odor hangs in the air, harmful to
both human health and the environment.
"We have repeatedly filed complaints with the subdistrict
chief, district chief and even with the mayor about the garbage,"
M. Said, a store owner, told The Jakarta Post recently.
He said there were only two dump trucks that transported the
trash from the site twice a day to the municipality's final
dumping site in Rawa Kucing, Neglasari subdistrict. Half of the
garbage was left untransported.
Tangerang has a population of over 1.3 million, according to
the latest census conducted in April this year. Referring to the
World Bank's estimate that individuals produce an average of 2.5
liters of trash per day, the head of the municipal sanitary
office, Daryanto, estimates that the population of Tangerang is
creating 3,290 cubic meters of waste daily.
He told the Post that only 1,080 cubic meters (32 percent) of
the waste could be transported to the Rawa Kucing dump each day,
while the remaining 2,210 cubic meters were left untransported.
Daryanto said the office had only 79 dump trucks and 11
armroll trucks with a capacity of six cubic meters each to
transport the waste to Rawa Kucing twice a day, once in the
morning and once in the afternoon.
The municipal administration had promised to provide 10 new
dump trucks this year, he said.
The sanitary office had earlier proposed purchasing 100
container units at a cost of Rp 1.2 billion, which would be able
to transport about 3,000 cubic meters of waste a day.
Daryanto also complained about undisciplined local residents
who threw away their garbage indiscriminately.
"People from various places throw the waste in front of the
Harmoni stores in Cimone and several other places at any time,
giving the impression that the garbage is not being transported,"
he said.
Daryanto added that about 130 cubic meters of commercial
garbage produced by five large markets in Tangerang, namely
Anyar, Cikokol, Cileduk, Ramadhani and Malabar, were handled by
private companies that collected Rp 500 daily from traders.