Laundry business causes waste, water problems

Agnes Winarti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 11/12/2008 10:43 AM 

 

Garment shops can be found easily trailing down the streets in Sukabumi Selatan subdistrict, West Jakarta, which has been known as the home of ready-made clothing since 1987.

 

Today, as the garment industry thrives, some 48 laundry ventures specialize in jeans attire. The laundries are sprawled out in the 198-hectare area where some 20,050 residents work in various fields related to the garment industry.

 

The 48 laundry ventures employ over 2,700 labors, consisting of people hailing from West Java, Central Java, East Java, Lampung and elsewhere outside the capital as well as local residents.

 

Some of the laundry ventures stand on land rented from the residents, while houses and rooms are also offered for rent to laborers coming from outside Jakarta.

 

Although the neighborhood's economic growth can be attributed to the business, some problems have arisen from the laundry ventures. The environmental problem caused by the blue liquid waste of the laundries is among them, as well as air pollution from coal.

 

According to some residents, the laundries emit a thick black smoke and smelly liquid into the neighborhood.

 

"They also excessively tap ground water for free, while forcing poor households like us to pay tap water for our domestic consumption, which is not cheap," said Zulfa, a resident on Jl. Persatuan in Sukabumi Selatan.

 

A security officer at the Lotus Laundry on the same street, Romli, said most, if not all, laundry ventures in Sukabumi Selatan used satellites to detect groundwater from at least 70 meters below the ground, thus making regular water pumps used by households redundant.

 

"But residents whose homes are close to our place have always received free groundwater extracted using our satellite," Romli said.

 

"We also pay taxes to the mining agency to extract water," he said.

 

In 2005 as the pollution worsened, complaints from distressed residents were filed to the City Council. The administration was then given the authority to regulate the laundry business through a gubernatorial decree that same year.

 

"Years have gone by and nothing has happened," said Kayati, who runs a small jeans business at home.

 

"Officials came here years ago promising to build special gutters for the laundries' liquid waste," she said pointing at the blackened gutters in front of her house.

 

The Head of the city environmental management agency, Budi Rama Natakusumah, said his office wanted to relocate the businesses over the next two to three years to an area more appropriate for their activities.

 

"We're still looking for a place to relocate them," he said.

 

It was previously reported that the administration was considering Semanan, West Jakarta, as the relocation site, yet residents there opposed the plan.

 

Budi said relocating the businesses was not a simple task because many locals depended on the industry to earn income.

 

"The administration has been facilitating meetings between water operator firm and the laundry businesspeople to stop them from using groundwater and to start installing tap water," he said.

 

"To decrease pollution, we are also facilitating discussions on the best solution to waste treatment by inviting several waste management installation companies to participate," Budi said.

 

Sukabumi Selatan subdistrict office deputy head Ibnu Adza said the meetings failed to get a positive response from the laundry businesspeople.

 

"Only 20 (out of 48) businesspeople are willing to attend the meetings."

 

Meanwhile, the head of the West Jakarta environmental management agency, Yusiono A. Supalal, said 12 laundry companies had agreed to build tap water installations at their sites, with six having already built the installations recently.

 

Tap water pipe installation costs Rp 1,166,500, which can be paid through Rp 97,200 monthly installments, said Koh Akiang at Matahari Laundry.

 

"We are still waiting for the installation," he said.

 

Yusiono said discussions were still being held over applicable methods of waste management for the laundry's waste.

 

He could not specify the exact amount the laundry businesses must pay for the communal waste management installation.

 

"We are still studying their water debit capacity to determine how the businesses can participate in the communal waste management installation."

 

Budi said a laundry machine used 3,000 liters each use, and a machine could work five times a day. Romli said his 2,000-square-meter Lotus Laundry had more than 20 laundry machines, meaning he used approximately 300,000 liters of water per day.

 

In response to the administration's plan on environmental regulation, the businessmen offered different opinions.

 

Koh Akiang said he would comply with the administration's regulation concerning environmental safety standards, while Romli expressed the opposite. Romli said he would be bankrupt if he had to use tap water and build a waste management installation.

 

A security guard at Arwana Laundry on Jl. Pos Pengumben Lama, Munzir HR, said judging from past experiences in dealing with city officials, he doubted the success of the new measures.

 

"For a long time, waste management like this has been no more than a discourse," Munzir said.

 

He said he was sent by his employer eight years ago to attend a meeting on waste management installation, but the plan never materialized.

 

Earlier, West Jakarta Mayor Djoko Ramadhan said the municipality would close down laundry businesses that failed to stop exploiting groundwater and build waste management system by November this year.