Stopgap actions taken to handle garbage

Annastashya Emmanuelle, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

District and subdistricts are piling up residents' trash at temporary dumping sites in their areas, while the location of a final dumping site has still to be decided.

The measures have been taken in an attempt to keep garbage from accumulating in the streets. However, due to the limited capacity of the areas concerned, the locations will soon be filled with garbage unless a new forwarding location is found soon.

Subdistrict chiefs are still meeting with district chiefs to work out how to deal with garbage in their areas.

On Tuesday, a panicky and confused Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso called on district and subdistrict chiefs to manage garbage in their own areas. He also urged city residents to reduce their garbage by burning it before depositing the remainder at garbage dumps -- an order that was in contravention of city Bylaw No. 5/1988 on sanitation.

According to the bylaw, anyone burning garbage not at a designated spot could be jailed for three months or fined Rp 50,000.

Chief of the government affairs section of Menteng subdistrict Sukarjo told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that he, for the time being, would not instruct residents to burn trash at their property, given that the resultant smoke could cause annoyance within the neighborhood.

Instead, the garbage would still be collected daily and stored at the four garbage transit locations in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

At the West Cempaka Putih area, also in Central Jakarta, residents were urged to wrap their waste neatly in plastic bags, to be taken away later by garbagemen. The bags would be taken to a temporary garbage disposal location in the area while awaiting final disposal at the new garbage dump site.

"This is in order to prevent garbage from lying around in the streets. This will only be a temporary solution until a permanent one is found," said head of the economy and development section at West Cempaka Putih subdistrict office Aji Angga.

Meanwhile, Ahmad, an employee at Jagakarsa subdistrict office, explained that his office had identified a plot of land to be used as a temporary dump site. The site could accommodate garbage from the neighborhood for about a month.

He said that the office had not yet considered burning the garbage due to the annoyance caused by the smoke produced.

"We will probably burn the garbage if the administration fails to identify a new dump site soon." he said.

Separately, piles of garbage at the Cakung-Cilincing transit site were incinerated on Wednesday in order to create space so that it could accommodate more garbage from around the city.

"We must remember that there are still many trucks waiting to unloaded garbage," said Iman, a worker at the site.

According to the worker, truck drivers insisted on dumping garbage, which had remained there since Monday.

"We will use an incinerator to burn it soon, after we have repaired it. Burning the garbage is the best thing we can do right now," he asserted.

The incinerator has been out of action for two months.