Piles of Rubbish in Angke Rusun, West Jakarta, Block Residents' Road Access for Weeks

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Piles of rubbish towering in the area of the Simple Rental Flats (Rusunawa) Angke, Tambora, West Jakarta, once blocked access roads in the residents’ settlement. The rubbish mountain located between blocks C and D of Rusun Angke caused paralysis in mobility at several alley points for weeks. Royyan (48), one of the flat residents, said the overflowing rubbish completely blocked the narrow alley usually used by residents for their activities. Due to the blocked access, residents were forced to find other alleys, which also only left footpaths because they were partially covered by rubbish. Residents’ motorbikes in the flat area even had difficulty entering and exiting the parking area within the block. “The alley is covered like that, the road is covered because of the rubbish, that rubbish. Covered by rubbish, so in the end, like it or not, we have to take another route, and that’s just a footpath because half of it is also covered,” said Royyan. Meanwhile, Ika, the Head of RT 10 RW 03 in Angke Subdistrict, said one of the causes of the rubbish piling up was that the collection process was hindered by access that was already blocked at the front of the flats. “So here there are about four collection points, right? Well, the one in front was already piling up a lot, so in the end the rubbish truck couldn’t enter, the impact was that the ones in the back here weren’t handled at all,” said Ika. The alley between the C and D blocks is the most severe rubbish accumulation point. The blocking of residents’ roads due to rubbish was also confirmed by Aminah (52), a resident and food seller in the flat area. The volume of rubbish that could no longer be contained then encroached on the road body and disrupted residents’ activities. “It’s really bad like that, even covering the road. The residents’ road can’t be used because it’s covered by rubbish. Whereas before, this alley was the cleanest, even though there was a rubbish collection point, it was never scattered like this,” said Aminah. She also said this rubbish pile-up has been going on for almost a month, counted from the month of Ramadan until passing Eid al-Fitr.