Temporary garbage dumps prepared

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.