River trash blamed on city agency

JAKARTA (JP): People living along the city's riverbanks blamed refuse collectors on Friday for the accumulation of garbage in the rivers and for the continuing floods.

They said they dumped their waste into the rivers because the refuse collectors repeatedly skipped their houses, leaving them to deal with their garbage on their own.

"Throwing garbage into the river is our only choice, because the city's sanitation agency services are so poor," said Iswadi, a resident who lives close to the Ciliwung river in Kampung Melayu subdistrict, East Jakarta.

He said the clean river campaign should not be delegated to the city's residents, as it also needs the city administration's assistance.

"If the city administration fails to provide a service, I think every river will always be in a bad condition.

"The sanitation agency does not serve the riverside dwellers, although each of us pays Rp 1,500 (21 US cents) per month for sanitation services," he said.

He said they had taken the initiative to bring their garbage to a nearby refuse collection center.

"But it proved useless because the agency's refuse collectors only collected our garbage once a week.

"What happened was that a bad smell spread to the area," he said.

Neneng Sariani, who lives near the Keroncong riverbanks in Menteng subdistrict, Central Jakarta, said all inhabitants were required to pay a sanitation fee of Rp 2,000 per month.

"But refuse trucks are only available in the neighboring district which is too far away from here.

"If we want to have our garbage collected, we have to carry it there. It is too complicated so we just throw the waste into the river," she said.

Neneng said she could understand if the refuse trucks or carts could not enter the area as the houses are situated overlooking the river.

The 21-year-old housewife said the river was cleaned once a week, but those who did the cleaning were local residents who worked without payment. "I don't know where the money goes," she said.

She said the Keroncong river had been in bad condition for a long time. The water is unmoving and all the families' liquid waste drains into the river.

"The water only flows if the nearby Manggarai floodgate is opened, which is usually only during the rainy season," she said.

As a consequence, the stagnant Keroncong river was also prone to flooding and was a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Data at the City Health Agency showed that from January until Nov. 9 2,812 city residents were hit by dengue fever, 40 of whom had died. During the same period last year the figure reached 14,912 people.

Another Keroncong riverside inhabitant, Kartini, said the river's poor condition would spread dengue fever in the community.

"What else can we do? We're just poor families who can not afford better sanitation," she said. (ind)