Temporary garbage dumps prepared

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration is preparing a total of 30 hectares of land in Srengseng and Cengkareng, West Jakarta, for temporary garbage dumps in anticipation of the possible closure of Bantar Gebang dump in Bekasi at the end of the year.

The city's development assistant Irzal Jamal said the two dumps could be used for about six months.

"We will use an open dumping system, the garbage will just be thrown there," Irzal said last week.

The administration is currently negotiating an offer from a private company which has 60 hectares of land in Cileungsi, Bogor, he said.

He added the city would only transport the city's garbage to the land while all permits from the Bogor administration and possible problems with the local community would be handled by the company.

City councillors, however, rejected the plan, saying that it would create new problems with the Bogor administration and local residents.

"Certain officials in the city administration are just thinking about the personal profits they would enjoy from the project," councillor Mukhayar R.M. of the Justice Party said.

Mukhayar said the former garbage dump in Srengseng had been transformed into a public park while in Cengkareng, there was only a neglected plot that was intended to be used for the Jakarta outer ring toll road.

Another councillor, Totok Ismunandar from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, suggested that the administration go ahead with its previous plan to use the garbage dump in Ciangir, Tangerang.

Some Tangerang councillors, however, had raised objections to the plan over fear of environmental damage.

The Bekasi municipality has complained of the poor garbage treatment in Bantar Gebang, which is hazardous to the environment and human health. It threatened to close the 104-hectare dump by the end of the year, instead of in 2003 as agreed earlier, unless the city administration appoints a private company to properly treat the waste, sets up an independent team to evaluate the work, and hands over 50 percent of the dump site to Bekasi.

Jakarta agreed to set up an independent team for the evaluation and appointed a private company, reportedly from Australia, to manage the dump, but has refused to hand over half of the land.

Mukhayar said the council suggested the city administration speed up its cooperation with private company PT Bio Fertilizer Indonesia (BFI) to transform the city's garbage into organic fertilizer.

"If we could process our garbage by ourselves, we could say goodbye to Bekasi," he said.

City Governor Sutiyoso signed a memorandum of understanding with BFI's principal, International Biofertilizer Recovery in Canada in April.

BFI plans to build five plants in the city's five municipalities to process the city's garbage which amounts to 25,000 cubic meters a day.