The garbage conundrum

The controversial reopening of the Bantar Gebang dump in Bekasi, West Java, is just one part of Jakarta's garbage problem.

House-to-house collection of garbage and transportation to temporary and final dumps have not yet been properly implemented.

Several temporary dumps have unfortunately brought about environmental problems. The most recent example is the dump on the coast at Cilincing, North Jakarta. The shrimp farmers there were shocked on noticing that an abundance of their shrimps and fish had died due to, in their belief, pollution of the ponds' water.

Farmers' representatives, accompanied by activist Azas Tigor Nainggolan, met with State Minister of Environment Nabiel Makarim to complain about the disaster. The farmers also asked the minister to mediate a meeting between them and Jakarta's Governor Sutiyoso, who, the farmers said, had committed a malicious act by operating a dump so close to their ponds.

Azas Tigor said that the farmers would take the case to court should talks with the governor fail to bring about results. The way the city administration dumps garbage in their area is, in their view, a crime.

Sutiyoso has promised to compensate the farmers if an improper dumping system was responsible for the pollution of the ponds. However, Amir Sagala, a City Sanitation Agency official, said that there has been no pollution of the water in the shrimp ponds, and that the protest was not staged by shrimp farmers. Sagala's statement, however, runs against the fact that the shrimp pond water was blackened with sludge.

To make matters worse, this problem is merely the tip of an iceberg that the city administration should have dealt with by devising an integrated plan based on the most appropriate technology for the issue on hand.

Dumping garbage on open land has been proven unsafe for the environment. The case in Cilincing is a blatant example, not to mention the previous protest of residents living near the Rawa Malang dump. The question is why the city administration has still not found alternatives that are safer for both humans and the environment they inhabit.

The city administration should have proactively sought to develop a more modern and environmentally friendly dumping system to handle the 6,000 tons of garbage Jakarta's residents produce every day. A breakthrough must be found in garbage handling, and this should involve the city administration in cooperation with the central government.

The Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), which was once the pride of the nation under B.J. Habibie, should be involved in finding the most appropriate technology for processing the garbage. The Office of the State Minister of Environment should similarly contribute in resolving the matter.

Unfortunately, those two institutions have failed to contribute any notable ideas regarding the problem of finding the most appropriate technology for handling and managing Jakarta's mountains of garbage on a daily basis. This strongly indicates that the central government has been ignorant of the capital city's decades-old garbage problem.

Once the proper technology is found, the city administration and the central government could invite companies to invest their assets and their money in this potentially huge business.

Cooperation between the administration and private companies in garbage handling has actually already begun with the introduction of technology known as the bala press system. Unfortunately, the system, which was demonstrated at Bojong village, Bogor, West Java, recently, proved flawed. The machine stalled while operating.

Openness to cooperation with countries such as Japan and the Netherlands, however, could still help the Jakarta administration to obtain the most suitable technology for the handling and processing of garbage.

The point is, such an openness must start from the understanding that garbage disposal is merely among the myriad of social problems which the city administration must, and has been, dealing with.

Once this is recognized, the Jakarta city administration could put the garbage problem at the top of its priority list, especially in regard to determining the allocations for the various sectors of the annual city budget.