To dump or not to dump?: Jakarta weighs its options
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta administration has yet to decide whether it will start operating the 104-hectare Bantar Gebang dump again following an offer by Bekasi municipality to allow the capital to resume dumping its 6,000 tons of daily garbage there.
"For the time being, Governor Sutiyoso has ordered the relevant officials to discuss Bekasi's offer on the use of the Bantar Gebang dump with Bekasi officials," city spokesman Muhayat said on Saturday.
Assistant to the city secretary for development affairs, IGKG Suena, and Jakarta Sanitation Agency head Selamat Limbong were tasked to check if Bekasi was really serious about the offer.
"We simply don't want to be trapped into further uncertainty in the future if we hurriedly decide to use the Bantar Gebang dump again," Muhayat said.
Bekasi Mayor Akhmad Zurfaih sent a letter to Sutiyoso on Friday informing him that the mayor and Bekasi councillors had agreed to allow Jakarta the dump its garbage in Bantar Gebang based on the joint agreement between the administrations of Jakarta and Bekasi dated Dec. 22.
Jakarta closed down the dump last week after Bekasi demanded the capital pay a waste processing fee of Rp 85,000 (US$10) for each ton of waste.
The closure led to a garbage crisis in the two cities, which both use the dump, that has lasted for more than a week. In the meantime, Jakarta began to dump its waste in swampy, open land in Cilincing and Rorotan subdistricts, both in North Jakarta.
Playing down the waste crisis in the capital, Muhayat said that the city administration would keep focusing on its plan to invite investors to provide high technology waste management facilities for Jakarta.
"These investors will build the facilities for us. That's why we are not putting any allocations in the 2004 budget to finance the building of high-tech waste facilities," he asserted.
In the budget allocation for sanitation, the sanitation agency has not earmarked any funds for high technology waste management facilities. Instead, it has allocated Rp 25 billion to compensate Bekasi for the use of Bantar Gebang.