Waste problems continue to cause headaches

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration is still trying to determine the best way to deal with the 26,945 cubic meters, or 6,000 tons, of waste the city's 10 million residents produce each day.

Currently most of the garbage produced by households and offices in Jakarta is transported to the Bantargebang dump site in Bekasi, sparking anger from local residents.

The administration believes building more dumps -- which would use sophisticated waste treatment methods -- may be the solution to the waste problem in Jakarta.

City Sanitation Agency head Eko Bharuna said the establishment of one waste-to-energy facility would cost the administration up to Rp 200 billion (US$15.96 million), but in return the electricity it produced could be worth as much as Rp 1 trillion.

To compliment one such facility that already exists in East Jakarta's Cakung area, the agency has planned three more facilities to be located in Duri Kosambi in West Jakarta, Marunda in North Jakarta and Pulogebang in East Jakarta.

In total, the four facilities could treat up to 4,000 tons of garbage per day, Eko said.

"We are still hoping investors will help develop these projects," he told The Jakarta Post recently.

Sanitation experts regularly warn of Jakarta's garbage crisis worsening in the absence of new dump sites.

Piles of garbage are often left scattered around the capital for days as the city regularly encounters a shortage of garbage trucks.

Currently the city sanitation agency operates 774 of its own garbage trucks and rents 100 others, while private companies operate 165 garbage trucks and city market operator PD Pasar Jaya owns 58 trucks.

When fully operational, each of the 1,097 garbage trucks operating in Jakarta can carry 20.9 cubic meters of waste at any one time. Therefore, the city would need at least 1,278 trucks to adequately deal with the waste produced in Jakarta on a daily basis.

To make matters worse, experts have predicted waste produced in the capital will amount to 6,337 tons per day in 2010 and 6,678 tons in 2015.

To illustrate the dire situation Jakarta faces, experts often say if the 110-hectare National Monument Park was transformed into a temporary dump site, it would be completely submerged with rubbish within 40 days.

Khalisah Khalid from the Indonesian Environment Forum (Walhi) in Jakarta said it was high time for a paradigm shift.

A waste treatment bill is currently under deliberation in the House of Representatives. If passed all regional administrations will be obliged to tap garbage for its economic value, while open dumping will be forbidden.

"The bill will also encourage the local administration to empower local communities to manage their own waste," Khalisah said.

However, she said the fact the administration tends to focus on capital-intensive waste management facilities may hamper this process.

"Waste problems in the city cannot be overcome with just the use and management of technology. Since the garbage problem is related to consumption and production in the city, there should be a change in people's lifestyles," Khalisah said.

At least 20 subdistricts in Jakarta and dozens of others in Greater Jakarta have implemented reduce, reuse and recycle programs to manage waste.

These communities are able to enjoy the economic value of compost and charcoal as well as plastic goods and souvenirs produced from household waste.

Eko said such community initiatives had helped reduce Jakarta's daily waste production volume by up to 10 percent.

"However ... to reduce the amount of garbage produced in the city by 20 percent in the next five years we will have to develop an industry to market the products.

"We are cooperating with the State Ministry for State Enterprises in our search to find big industries to support community-based waste management programs. But to make it happen will take time," Eko said.