Piles of rubbish starting to get up Jakartans' noses
As garbage has not been collected for the last five days due to the closure of Bantar Gebang dump, residents here are complaining of the stench of rotting garbage and have been forced to manage their own household waste the best they can.
"The presence of uncollected garbage is annoying. My customers have stopped coming to my stall because they can't stand the smell," said Martin, a spice vendor in Jatinegara market, East Jakarta.
Piles of garbage were seen in markets around the city including Jatinegara and Kramat Jati markets in East Jakarta, Pasar Senen in Central Jakarta and Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta.
According to Martin, the situation became worse after heavy rain the day before. Wet garbage decomposes even more quickly, he said.
Faced with heaps of garbage, a sweeper at Kramat Jati market, Sukadi, said "I don't know what to do. I am still sweeping the alleys in the market but I can only add it the mounting piles of garbage."
He said that he could not burn the garbage as it consisted of rotten vegetables and fruits.
Another garbage collector, Asep, asserted that garbage would continue to decompose because the antibacterial spray used by the city health agency, could only reach the top of the garbage pile.
"The antibacterial chemicals could not reach the middle of the garbage piles. Therefore, it is still decomposing," he said.
Some residents complied with Governor Sutiyoso's instruction to burn their garbage as a way to deal with the problem after the Bekasi administration closed the dump on Monday.
Many residents in Kemang, Kebayoran Baru and Pondok Indah in South Jakarta have opted to put the trash in plastic bags or sacks and leave it on the sidewalk.
Some have decided to put the garbage in dumpsters near their homes and the rest have paid private garbage collectors to take it away.
Rojikin, a gardener in a house on Jl. Metro Segar, Pondok Indah, told The Jakarta Post on Friday that he burnt the garbage because the trash collectors, who usually took it, had not shown up since Monday.
He knew that Bantar Gebang dump in Bekasi, West Java, had been closed. Therefore, he decided to burn it until the administration finds a new site.
"Every day, this house produces three sacks of garbage. I have to burn it to make space for more garbage. Otherwise, we will have to suffer from the stench of rotting garbage. I can't wait very long," he asserted.
Usually, the only disposal bin in the yard, with a volume of 27 cubic meters, could hold household garbage for up to three days, according to the gardener, who usually burns garbage in the bin after his employers go to work.
In Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, sacks of garbage were seen on the sidewalks. Though kept in sacks, the garbage still spilled over and smelt bad.
"My employers forbid me to burn garbage. They said it was harmful for our health," said Onah, a maid working for a couple who live on Jl. Wijaya, Kebayoran Baru.
Therefore, Onah and another maid, had to put the household garbage into sacks and put it on sidewalk in front of the house. On Thursday, there were six sacks placed under a tree off the road.
"The garbage hasn't been collected since Tuesday here. My employers complained about it two days ago to the sanitation agency, and they promised to move it soon," she remarked, adding that up until Thursday there was no response from the agency.
Onah expected the agency to move it soon because the garbage had begun to decompose and had started to attract rats.
"They have to move it as we pay a garbage collection fee of about Rp 20,000 (US$2) per month," said Onah.
Residents in Kemang area in South Jakarta were not too worried about the problem because some private collectors have offered their services to take the garbage away.
"We have to pay them Rp 3,000 a day," said Asih, a maid working in a house on Jl. Ampera Raya, Kemang, adding that her employers are willing to pay.
According to Asih, her employers prefer to pay an additional fee rather than having piles of uncollected garbage in front of their nice house.
A garbage collector, Ruwa, said that residents in the area were prepared to pay the fee as long as the collectors took it away.
Ruwa said that he and six other friends work for their boss, who owned dozens of carts. The carts are usually deployed to take used goods. Every day, Ruwa collects three carts of garbage.
"We leave the carts in a cemetery here. If the agency goes back to work, we will dump it in a dumpster near this place so they can take it away. Otherwise, we will dump it in the cemetery if the agency does not collect it within the next three days," he asserted.