The garbage conundrum

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.