Residents against move to reopen Leuwigajah dump site

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

More than 200 people living around the Leuwigajah dump site in Cimahi regency, West Java, have protested plans to reopen the dump, which was closed after a garbage slide killed more than 100 residents in 2005.

Residents protested the reopening following the construction of a 4-km wall around the site.

Residents from East Batujajar village said they were not informed of the plan.

Resident Abdullah said the wall construction began Friday under tight security by police and military personnel.

"We asked officers there and were told the wall was just made along the border of the province's land. But we then learned it was to protect the dump site, which will be reopened. This upset us," said Abdullah, whose house is 20 meters from the wall.

Another resident, Siti Aminah, demanded the project be stopped, saying she and other residents were still traumatized by the 2005 disaster.

"We live peacefully now. Why disturb us again? The trash didn't come from villagers here, but from city residents. Why do we have to suffer?" Aminah said.

Widyo Utomo, who coordinated the protest, said residents have asked the provincial administration, including the province's Environmental Impact Management Agency and Development Plan Supervision Agency, to meet Deputy Governor Nu'Man Abdul Hakim to discuss plans for the reopening.

However, before the meeting could take place, the administration began constructing the wall.

"(We) feel offended, since the government made the plan without considering us, residents who are still traumatized by the disaster," Widyo said.

Head of East Batujajar village, Syaeful Bachri, said he would convey residents' concerns to the provincial administration.

"I have no authority to stop the project since it is the provincial administration's project. But let's calm down and talk about this," he said.

Nu'man said in May this year the Leuwigajah dump site would resume operations since the Bandung city and regency administrations and Cimahi city could not come up with an alternative long-term solution.

Plans to find new dump sites, he said, were faced with objections from residents in the designated places.

He said the administration would work together with British investors to manage a compost factory at the Leuwigajah dump site, adding a feasibility study for the project was conducted in June this year.

He said it was agreed the dump site would defer to the Kyoto Protocol and would not produce gases that worsen climate change.