Scavengers protest burning of garbage

JAKARTA (JP): Seventy-five scavengers of the Bantar Gebang garbage dump in Bekasi staged a demonstration at City Hall on Monday protesting the city's decision to burn garbage instead of dumping it at the site.

Holding banners saying "Pay attention to scavengers' fates", "We are financially broke because of garbage burning" and "Mr. Governor, help us", they complained that the garbage burning policy had cut their daily incomes 50 percent.

"For instance, I was able to earn Rp 10,000 per day last year. But just earning Rp 5,000 is so difficult today," Radi, 27, one of the scavengers, said.

"I hope the administration will continue to dump garbage at the dump site," he said.

The 250-hectare Bantar Gebang garbage dump is the home of 25,000 scavengers.

The scavengers' representatives were received by Raya Siahaan of the city's Data Center for Social Disturbance Unit.

The mayoralty of Central Jakarta started burning its trash last month and the city's four other mayoralties are planning to begin the practice in the future.

"We have no more source of income if all the rubbish is burned. What kind of other earnings can we get then?" Radi asked.

Takim, one of the six representatives received by Siahaan, however, said the administration would not change its rubbish burning policy because it was more efficient than sending trash to the dump site.

"By burning the garbage, the administration does not need to pay for transportation costs to Bantar Gebang," Takim quoted Siahaan as saying.

Central Jakarta Mayor Andi Subur Abdullah said that up to now, the mayoralty had 10 garbage burning sites which could burn three cubic meters of garbage per hour.

Andi said the scavengers should not worry because the facilities could burn only a fraction of Central Jakarta's garbage which totals 5,200 cubic meters per day.

Governor Sutiyoso said Monday that he would look into the case to see whether the city had improperly handled the issue.

He said his office would not ignore the scavengers' welfare.

"If they should have to move from the garbage site because of improved garbage handling, we will try to provide them with other work opportunities," he said.

Radi said the scavengers' situation was worsened by rubbish selling by garbage truck drivers before reaching the dump site.

Saksono Soehodo of the city's Sanitation Agency, however, said there were no parties who took away opportunities for scavengers to claim garbage.

He claimed that the scavengers competed for the garbage among themselves.

"It's just a competition among themselves. There's no outside party," said Saksono.

He said some of the scavengers did not want to collect garbage on the site together with other scavengers, so they stopped trucks before they entered the site.

He said the competition had brought nothing but problems to his office.

"The dumping of garbage on the street outside the site created more problems. The garbage piling up on the street causes bad odors and poor sanitation," he said.

The head of the City Sanitation Agency, Subasir, said that more equipment, including trucks, were still needed to handle the city's refuse.

At least 600 more trucks are still needed to pick up garbage from various areas in the city to dump at the garbage site.

"We now have a total of 806 trucks," said Subasir. (ind/cst)