Sutiyoso urges people to burn their garbage

Sutiyoso urges people to burn their garbage

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakartans beware! You may soon be living in a city that may
sink under a mountain of garbage and engulfed in a thick, foul-
smelling smoke within a matter of days.

This nighmarish vision could soon become a reality if city
administration officials fail to find an appropriate location to
dump garbage, or fail to develop a better way of handling the
25,000 cubic meters of household refuse that the city produces
daily.

As of Tuesday, two days after the Bekasi municipal
administration shuttered Jakarta's garbage dump site in Bantar
Gebang, Bekasi, most garbage produced within two days was left
unmoved, and most of the 800 trucks that normally transport the
waste were not in operation, as the drivers were still uncertain
as to where they were supposed to dump it.

Many of the trucks were still loaded with Monday's trash.

Apparently panicked and confused by the situation, Governor
Sutiyoso abruptly instructed his men to take the emergency
measure of handling garbage in their own areas. He also urged
city residents to reduce their garbage by burning it before
disposing of the rest at a garbage dump.

It is hard to imagine what will happen to Jakarta if people
here start burning their trash.

The city's total population by night is 8.9 million. If a
family on average has five members, there will be 1,780,000
families living here. If just a quarter of the total families
burn their garbage, then there will be 445,000 sources of thick
smoke that would engulf the capital.

Anticipate the negative impact of the smoke on your health.

Sutiyoso called the city's mayors, district and subdistrict
chiefs to an emergency meeting on Tuesday during which he told
them to handle the problem of garbage in their respective areas.

Heaps of untransported trash are already imminent in some
parts of the city, as many of the garbage trucks still loaded
with Monday's waste have thus been unable to pick up Tuesday's
trash.

Some new garbage dump locations have been prepared, while
others are being scouted for. Some of the sites, like the Kedaung
and Tegal Alur in West Jakarta, and Sunter in North Jakarta might
face local resistance due to their close distance to residential
complexes.

To avoid residents' objections, Sutiyoso said the
administration would deploy public order officers to secure
garbage trucks disposing of the trash.

"We have to be all out in handling the problem," he said,
admitting that they were shocked, confused and not ready with the
closure of Bantar Gebang.

As garbage trucks were lining up at small transit dumping
sites on Tuesday, some were carrying trash from the previous day,
and most of the drivers were still clueless about what to do,
since there was no clear instruction from their superiors.

Of the four sites Sutiyoso previously announced, only Cakung-
Cilincing is ready to take in about 200 trucks daily, and can no
longer take in new trucks, as the five-hectare area is already
loaded to the limit with garbage.

Meanwhile, the alternative sites in Tangerang and Bogor as
mentioned by Sutiyoso have also faced resistance from locals
worried about the pollution the garbage might cause.

"After seeing the long line-up of trucks in Cakung-Cilincing
on Monday, I took the initiative and drove the garbage to Gunung
Sindur in Bogor only to get rejected," truck driver Mat Sani, who
still have Monday's waste in his truck, said while queuing at
Sunter dump.

Achmad Ferli, an official at Sunter site, said he could no
longer accept new garbage, "because the final dumping site is
still unclear ... if we take the garbage now, it will pile up
here for an uncertain time."

Sunter site, he said, would be closed until further notice
from the city sanitary agency.

Many trucks with Monday's garbage were also seen lining up in
front of the Cakung-Cilincing site. The drivers insisted on
trying to dump the garbage there considering because there was no
other site.