Come clean: Jakarta government employees hang two containers carrying 20 cubic meters of garbage in front of the National Monument in Central Jakarta. The display marked the launch of jakartabersih.com to promote a clean city by Governor Fauzi Bowo on Friday. - JP/Indah Setiawati
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 01/16/2010 8:46 PM
The East Flood Canal is soon to emerge as the most popular and safest place for bikers to ride in Jakarta.
Pitoyo Subandrio, head of Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Bureau at the Ministry of Public Works, said Saturday a bicycle track would be built along each side of the canal, which stretches between Kebon Nanas in East Jakarta and Marunda Beach in North Jakarta.
The left track between Kebon Nanas and Marunda covers 23 kilometers, while the opposite track covers 22 kilometers.
“We are planting trees along the tracks to make them convenient to bikers. I believe the canal will be the most popular route,” Pitoyo was quoted by kompas.com.
The government will build barb wire fences along the canal to keep people from dumping garbage into the flood control facility.
Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post, Kuta | Sat, 03/07/2009 2:31 PM | Bali
After two consecutive scorching hot days earlier in the week, it was raining hard Wednesday evening and foreign tourists walking on Jl. Kartika in Kuta frowned as they saw two sections of the street were completely flooded.
The busy street, where dozens of hotels and restaurants are located, is an alternative route, a shortcut, leading to the famous Kuta Beach in Badung regency from the nearby Ngurah Rai International Airport.
But it was jammed with a long queue of motorists who slowly struggled to get through sections with flood water up to 60 centimeters high, one of which was located near the five-star Discovery Kartika Plaza Hotel.
After the rainwater subsided the following day, it was clear that many drainage holes along the two sections were completely blocked by thick sand, while others were filled with all kinds of garbage.
Suci Ari, a member of the Bali Hotel Public Relations Association and the spokeswoman of the Santika Hotel, said that this was a common sight on the street.
"Of course it is disturbing tourists and it has been like this for a considerable time," she told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
"The problem is no one cares because the drainage system is a public facility."
But when it comes to guests' comfort, businesses along the street usually make the necessary efforts to solve the problem, at least on their own premises.
Suci said the section in front of her hotel used to be swamped whenever it rained, so the management decided to make an additional hole that connected to the drainage system.
I Wayan Sugawa, head of the Badung Highway and Water Management Agency, said he had not received any reports of flooded streets as none of his officers had monitored the area on that rainy night.
"We will check the drainage holes on the street immediately and see what we can do," he told the Post on Thursday.
"Usually the water cannot drain away because the holes are clogged with sand as well as litter from the street."
He said the street was equipped with a 5-kilometer sewerage system on both sides, up to 1.5 meters in height and width, which "should be enough to stop the street from flooding."
"Piles of garbage and sand inside the system, however, made it difficult for rainwater to drain away," Sugawa said.
He said the agency had a program to clear materials blocking waterways in the regency but it had yet to reach Jl. Kartika as they were still working on Jl. Arjuna and Jl. Ken Dedes.
In nearby Denpasar, seven of the 11 villages in the Sidakarya district were flooded early this year after the five-meter-wide Punggawa River broke its banks.
The Denpasar mayor said the flood was caused by an inadequate water drainage system as well as garbage clogging up the sewers. Meanwhile, the Bali provincial administration plans to map the flood-prone areas, after disastrous floods hit the island on Jan. 11, to make the disaster management system function more effectively.
Triwik Kurniasari, THE JAKARTA POST, JAKARTA | Sat, 01/31/2009 8:36 AM
Ani, 47, and Bayu, 49, sat on a metal park bench under the shade of trees in the National Monument (Monas) Park in Central Jakarta.
The couple gazed at the capital’s landmark, feeling a soft breeze touch their faces.
“We always come to Monas every week because it’s close to our home in Kebon Sayur [also in Central Jakarta],” Ani said on Friday. “I really enjoy hanging out in Monas to refresh my mind. I like sitting under the big trees, watching the green grass and breathing the fresh air.
“The place is clean. It is much cleaner compared to 20 years ago when I first came to Jakarta. I notice there are many garbage men cleaning the area. That’s good,” she said.
Ani’s husband, Bayu, shared similar thoughts. "The park is clean. I sometimes see falling leaves or branches scattered in the park, but I don’t mind as they are so natural.”
“If there is a used plastic bottle thrown [by a visitor] in the open area, the garbage men will immediately pick it up,” he said, adding that he could easily find garbage bins there.
Their comments were in contrast to those made by Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo the day before.
Fauzi was furious to find damaged park lights, dead trees, puddles of water and piles of garbage in some spots in the Monas park when jogging in the vicinity on Thursday at about 5:30 p.m.
He claimed it was not the first time he had noticed the shabby condition of the park but said he preferred to keep silent and hope for an improvement.
"But until today there is no such attempt [from Monas management] to improve this [messy] condition. I’m very disappointed,” Fauzi said, adding that there were too many institutions involved in the maintenance of Monas.
Monas is managed by several city agencies, including the parks and sanitation agencies.
A garbageman, Atok, said he cleaned Monas Park seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. He said holidays were hard days for him, as he found lots of trash scattered around the park.
“We try to do our best to keep the area clean. But visitors sometimes do not put their garbage, like used plastic bottles or Styrofoam food boxes, into the garbage bins. They just throw them anywhere,” he said.
“This is very annoying but we can do nothing about it.”
Earlier this month, Central Jakarta Mayor Sylviana Murni said she would ask the city administration to assign her municipality to take over management of Monas in order to better maintain the landmark.
She promised her office would be able to directly control the maintenance of the complex. She said the new management was expected to be effective by the end of the month, pending a gubernatorial decree.
During Thursday's impromptu visit, Fauzi directed Sylviana to make immediate improvements, saying he would be back in the next two weeks to examine it.
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 01/17/2009 3:02 PM
Heavy rains have sent more trash piling at Jakarta sluice gates, forcing the administration to deploy more personnel to clean it up.
Eko Bahruna, head of the city's sanitary agency, said Saturday that more more than 20,000 cubic meter of trash has piled up following heavy rain falls in the last few days.
Eko said his office has sent hundreds of load trucks and personnel to clear the piles. The trash were taken to dump sites in Bantar Gebang, Bekasi and Pegangsaan Dua, North Jakarta.
“The governor has told us to clean the trash immediately,” he sais as reported by kompas.com.
The biggest pile of trash, which took 43 truck trips to move, was seen at Kalibata Bridge in South Jakarta. South Jakarta Mayor Syahruk Effendi said around 1,800 cubic meter trash had been cleaned from Wednesday to Friday. (dre)
Agnes Winarti and Triwik Kurniasari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 01/14/2009 8:19 AM
It now takes less than an hour of heavy downpour to turn some of Jakarta's streets into impassable waterways and to bring traffic to a grinding halt.
An official at the Jakarta Public Works Agency said Tuesday the city's clogged sewerage and waterways were the major cause of traffic in the city on Tuesday when monsoon rain brought Jakarta's roads to a virtual standstill.
“The garbage causes both micro- and macro-drainage systems in the city to only be able to perform at 50 to 70 percent of their capacities,” head of the agency Budi Widiantoro said.
He clarified that micro drains were 1- to 5-meter-diameter drainage pipes, and that macro drains were the city's major rivers.
He said because of the excess of garbage in the city's sewerage, water tended to overflow onto the streets in heavy rain. He said even without the blockages, the city's sewerage was inadequate to absorb protracted heavy rainfall.
It has proven incapable of absorbing the monsoon rain that has pounded the city over the last two days.
“The [city] only has the capacity to absorb a maximum of 50 millimeters of rainfall, and today there was more than 50 millimeters of rain,” Budi told The Jakarta Post.
In Pulo Gadung, East Jakarta, 87 millimeters of rain had fallen in the last two days. The average annual rainfall for the city is 300 millimeters.
“It only rained for a moment but the intensity was very high,” he said.
On Tuesday morning, the heavy rainfall broke a 25-meter-long dike near Artha Gading mall and a 15-meter-long dike next to the Telkom building, both on Jl. Yos Sudarso in North Jakarta.
“The broken dikes have been temporarily fixed using sand bags,” Budi said.
According to the Coordination Board for Disaster Mitigation's disaster center at City Hall, Rawa Terate in Cakung, North Jakarta, was inundated with 1 meter of water Tuesday morning.
Also, Kayu Putih area in East Jakarta was flooded in water as high as 50 centimeters, Cempaka Putih Timur in Central Jakarta took on 60 centimeters of water and Petogogan in South Jakarta was inundated with 20 centimeters.
The heavy rain created puddles on more than 30 main streets in the city, causing lengthy traffic jams.
As of the afternoon, water had inundated a number of main streets in the capital, according to the city police’s Traffic Management Center (TMC).
Muara Baru in North Jakarta suffered the highest water levels with 40 centimeters, Second Brig. David of the TMC said.
“Puddles could be found in some areas, mostly in North Jakarta, such as on Jl. Baru Ancol, Jl. RE Martadinata, East Kelapa Gading and Teluk Gong,” David told the Post.
Agnes Winarti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 12/23/2008 10:58 AM
Clean and tidy. It might seem out of place in all the commotion of an area known to outsiders as a slum. But residents of the Ciliwung riverbank in South and East Jakarta are proving they can keep it clean.
The lively Pasar Rakyat (community bazaar) features some 60 knockdown wooden stalls selling food, drinks, children's toys, shoes and slippers, clothes and even ceramics, lined up neatly along the decked-out 320-meter alley connecting four of the 12 neighboring units (RT) in the Bukit Duri slum in South Jakarta.
"We want to show the public that people living in slums can also hold such a well-organized festival," Catholic priest Sandyawan Sumardi, from community group Sanggar Ciliwung Merdeka, told The Jakarta Post on the first day of three-day event.
He said he hoped the administration, after seeing the bazaar, would provide a place and an opportunity for the urban poor people to improve their lives and their environment.
"Municipal administrations in European countries and the United States, for instance, are willing to allocate space in city parks for poor people to set up a temporary market like this during weekends. I hope that can be applied here too."
Since 2000, Sanggar Ciliwung Merdeka has fought for the improvement of the squatters' living conditions and their environment, especially in RTs 5, 6, 7 and 8 of Bukit Duri and RT 10 of Kampung Pulo in East Jakarta, stretching along the Ciliwung riverbank.
In 2007, the group worked hand in hand with the riverbank residents to manage waste, plant trees, set up a clean water and sanitation facility, promote healthy eating for mothers and babies, build a community clinic, and work on environmental education programs.
In December this year, a composting house built on a 200-square meter plot of land in the Kampung Pulo area, began running its four composting machines, which have a capacity of 750 kilograms each.
Lestari, a volunteer worker at the composting house, says 200 kilograms of organic waste are collected from the five RTs daily.
"We need to get more organic waste to meet the machine's capacity," she adds.
"We produce more than 50 kilograms of compost every 21 days, and distribute it for free to families in the neighborhood who grow plants at home."
Nurhayati, 48, whose husband works a low-paying job as a security guard, is one of four residents participating in the composting project. For her, the project provides extra income to help raise three of her seven children.
"We get Rp 400,000 a month for making compost," she says.
Shinta Yulianingsih, Sanggar Ciliwung Merdeka field coordinator, says the biggest hurdle is getting every household to stick to the waste-sorting process. "We have to keep reminding people because it is a matter of changing habits," she says.
The Jakarta Post, Sat, 11/15/2008 10:54 AM
JAKARTA: City-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya plans to create 10,000 biopores in 151 traditional markets across the city to prevent puddles around the market areas.
The public relations officer of Pasar Jaya, M. Nur Havidz, said each market would have 50 to 100 biopores.
"The biopores will allow more rainwater to be absorbed. We can also put organic waste into the biopores so it can turn into compost," Havidz said Thursday, as quoted by beritajakarta.com.
So far there are only 22 markets -- including Kramatjati market in East Jakarta, Tebet market in South Jakarta, Glodok market in West Jakarta and Senen market in Central Jakarta -- with biopores, he said.
Pasar Jaya ambassador, actress Chintami Atmanegara, said she hoped the biopores would make the traditional markets cleaner so more people would go there.
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang | Fri, 11/07/2008 4:21 PM
A number of business owners in Tangerang regency have begun to see garbage as a promising business opportunity for the future.
A group of local entrepreneurs calling themselves Pejuang Kecil (Small fighters) and a civil society group Green Foundation are just two of the groups of opportunity seekers scrambling for stakes in the regency's garbage-processing business.
The groups have been engaging in partnerships to process trash in an environmentally friendly way.
"We're using an incinerating machine that has an efficient size. It can be placed on any 300-square-meter plot of land where it can process all the garbage from that district," Munandar, a member of the Green Foundation said Thursday.
He said with the incinerators costing Rp 150 million each, the administration could save on regency expenditures for garbage handling at final dumping sites that costs billions of rupiah.
He said if the incinerators were distributed to every district, there would also be no need to spend money transferring garbage piled up at temporary dump sites in the respective districts to the central landfill.
"A laboratory test has proven that the incinerator doesn't pollute the environment," he said, adding that the foundation would organize a meeting with the relevant agencies under the regency administration to advance the plan.
The Jakarta Post, Fri, 10/24/2008 1:34 PM
JAKARTA: The City Sanitation Agency has deployed 150 to 200 trash pickers riding bicycles or motorcycles to pick up household trash in every municipality in the city, an official says.
"The bicycles and motorcycles can reach residential areas only accessible via small alleys. We established the bike team because we have a limited number of garbage trucks and the trucks can't operate 24-hours-a-day," agency head Eko Bharuna said Wednesday.
He said his agency only had 765 garbage trucks, but that 1,000 were needed.
He said the transportation method was still being evaluated as the team had only been in operation for seven months.
Each bicycle/motorcycle is equipped with an orange tin box mounted at the rear to hold the garbage.
He said his agency had allocated Rp 300 million to procure the vehicles and that if the team proved effective he would expand the fleet next year.
Jakarta produces 6,250 tons of garbage every day
The Jakarta Post | Sat, 10/18/2008 9:56 AM | Jakarta
The Jakarta Crisis Center has reported that as of Friday there are 20 locations in the city already witnessing a rise in water level. The condition likely to worsen as the city enters the rainy season.
The crisis center advised the public within the area to remain alert while the city administration engaging in measures to minimize impact.
The locations are spread evenly in four municipalities:
The Central Jakarta administration has been moving to prepare citizens should the worst happen.
“We have requested the citizens to dump their waste in designated places, clean the sewers, especially those in their own neighborhood. That is at least what they can do,” said Central Jakarta’s chief of public works, Agus Priyono.
Agus also said the city administration was cooperating with local the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) in setting up medical posts and flood evacuation center in 8 districts and 44 districts.
According to the National Development Planning Agency, although the impact of the last year’s inundations in February on the overall national economy has been limited, it inflicted a total of Rp 8.8 trillion (US$897.6 million) in losses.
Losses in the economic activities category amounted to Rp 2.9 trillion, including Rp 2 trillion in losses suffered by 75 large-scale industrial companies operating mainly in the automotive and electronics sectors.
In addition, losses of Rp 742.6 billion were suffered by 560 small and medium enterprises in the textiles sector, and 2,100 in the furniture sector, while Rp 46.5 billion in losses were suffered by more than 16,000 street vendors, and Rp 62 billion by vendors in 40 traditional markets.
Meanwhile, the floods damaged Rp 48.8 billion-worth of community facilities, consisting of more than 200 schools, over 30 medical centers and a number of religious facilities. On top of that, Rp 66.9 billion in damage was caused to other facilities. (and)
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 05/10/2008 10:34 AM
The Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) launched a neighborhood cleanup campaign Thursday in a bid to highlight the threat of flooding in several parts of the city.
The campaign in Petamburan, Central Jakarta, is the first in a planned series of nationwide campaigns. The area is notoriously prone to flooding.
Hundreds of local residents and students from schools in the neighborhood took part in cleaning out gutters, digging biopore holes and distributing tree seedlings, hygiene products and baby kits.
PMI volunteers supervised the cleanup, which took in private homes, public facilities and streets. The PMI also provided 10 garbage receptacles for sorting organic and inorganic waste.
PMI secretary-general, Iyang D. Sukandar, said several sponsors had provided support for the activities, including the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the German Red Cross and the Dutch Red Cross.
"The Agriculture Ministry provided us with the seedlings, and their distribution is part of our effort to curb the effects of global warming," he said.
"Cleaning up the environment and making biopores are also important in helping us adapt to the changing climate," he said.
Iyang said the campaign was conducted to commemorate the 145th anniversary of the World Red Cross Red Crescent Day on May 8.
Agus Surono, head of the Petamburan neighborhood unit, said the PMI's efforts were laudable because they helped raise awareness of the annual flood threat.
"The communities here need to work together with the PMI on a more regular basis," he said.
PMI press officer Aulia Arriani said the PMI usually dealt with disaster relief management, so preventive activities like this were very important.
"This kind of activity promotes community participation in preparing for disasters. We can also educate people and recruit more volunteers from local communities," she said.
She said the PMI also gave free health checks and blood-type tests.
"The blood-type tests are very useful for us to prepare a list of potential blood donors. We have about 250 candidates from this area," she said.(uwi)
Kim Balmanno, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
As the sun rises on a small suburb in Jakarta's south, the street vendors, children and dog-walkers make their way, along with the birds and lizards, to the local park. But this is where the romantic image ends.
In reality, Guntur's park, Taman Tangkuban Perahu, is, at the time of writing, piled high with polystyrene containers, plastic cups, straws, paper and indiscriminate objects, along with copious amounts of dog faeces.
Children must stick to the paths and those that exercise remain in an upright position, choosing to keep only their feet on the ground. There is no one doing sit-ups or sprawling on the grass as expected in an inner city park.
Fathers with their children are squatting on slippery slides and mothers, nannies and children are confined to the seats. The rest of the "green" area is a squalid mess.
Ibu Amerah is the principal at Ampri kindergarten, across the road from the park, on Jl. Merapi.
"We do not let the children play in the park, because we are concerned for their health," Amerah said.
"We can do nothing, it's the responsibility of the lurah (sub-district head) ... and they can't do anything either."
Her small school has 30 children aged between 3 to 6 years. They all play in the grounds of the kindergarten and are left to look out at the park's open space.
An ojek motorcycle taxi driver throws his cigarette butt onto a pile of rubbish. As he does so, he tells me what a disgusting mess the park is. I point to the cigarette and he laughs. Catching hold of the irony, he shrugs.
The park is void of rubbish bins.
"This is so the cart merchants won't steal them," said local resident Lim Sean Hang.
Ten minutes down the road, and crossing the Ciliwung River, the environment transforms into a haven of respite. A water fountain bubbles gently offering tranquility from the constant din of traffic, horns and vendors.
There are roosters in cages and doves in lofts. Statues frame friends talking and people lounge on chairs. The grass looks healthy. There are six cleaners who work from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, emptying the dozens of bins placed strategically around the park; they sweep, rake and provide maintenance. This is Suropati Park in Menteng.
Back in Guntur, Lim rolls his eyes.
"There is VIP living in Menteng, that's why it's always clean there," he said.
A visit to an RT (head of a neighborhood unit) in the Guntur area, Mukti, shed little light on the problem.
"I complained many times to the lurah ... three days later they started cleaning ... but every two days they must clean the park," said Mukti.
At regular meetings between the chief, the RT and the lurah, the rubbish is discussed but words fall and decompose like leaves in the park.
Malisi, the lurah of Guntur, is quick to pass the buck and the bulk of the responsibility onto the parks department.
"It is because the chief of the parks department has for a long time not been active," Malisi said.
"The parks department are responsible for giving to orders to clean the park," he said.
The parks in Manggarai, although dilapidated, seem to provide some fun for children. The "volleyball park" is used as a soccer field and before the overhead light, which hangs precariously over the court, was broken, it was apparently used nightly by adults to play badminton.
"The light was broken by strong winds in December," said Warti, a food vendor at the park, adding the exposed wires could prove dangerous in the current wet season if not fixed.
A man squats in one corner of the "tennis park" in Manggarai, sifting through a pile of old, burnt out and new rubbish. He is collecting remnants of cardboard to sell.
There is graffiti surrounding the park, but the children are laughing and playing on the swings. Despite the rubbish they appear happy to have some green space.
There are 250 students aged between 6 and 12 years at the nearby Manggarai 03 Elementary School.
"I don't bring the students to the parks outside of school time unless there is a sports game between schools. It's a slum area ... the park is not good but at least the children can run and play football," said Principal Maryati.
Manggarai is densely populated with 34,170 people crammed into condensed housing. The parks are an important space to "socialize and exercise" said Sarwo Handhayani, head of the department of city parks.
She added her department was committed to building green areas in each of Jakarta's 265 kelurahan (sub districts).
Since 2000, the department has built 100 communal parks of around 500 to 1000-meters-squared, she said, and would like to build two parks in each area but still had a long way to go.
"It's hard to get the land at the government price. They want to sell it at the market price."
She said the Manggarai community were outraged when two "slum" residents were asked to sell their homes to make way for a green area.
"The residents demanded Rp 9 million. They fought back so the department left them. We have no power," said Rachmati Busuki, the wakil lurah (deputy sub-district head) of Manggarai.
Sarwo said the department planned to buy 10 houses in 2007, but four residents refused to sell and they only managed to convert 5 of the homes into green space.
There are more than 5,000 children, aged between 5 and 14, who live in Manggarai. Teenagers and children currently flock to Taman Situiembang in Menteng with its large pond and chained monkeys. It is a haven for leisure seekers and a well-known hangout for romantics. Locals even throw out a line to fish.
Six cleaners maintain the park from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. There are five workers every day in Surapati Park and, according to Didet Prihadiati from the South Jakarta administration, there are five workers servicing the Manggarai parks eight hours a day.
However, Warti, who has operated her warung for 15 years at the "volleyball" park, says six workers come once a month and clean all of the Manggarai parks in one day.
According to parks department data, the budget allocated in 2007 to maintain and clean the parks in Jakarta was Rp 160 billion.
Sarwo said the 2008 budget for the central area is Rp 20 billion, while Rp 50 to 100 million has been allocated to the newly built Taman Menteng, 40 to 50 million for Suropati Menteng, 15 million for Situiembang Menteng and 2 billion for Monas.
These figures are similar to those of Guntur and Manngarai, but the difference between the parks is immense.
Each of the five locations in Guntur receives Rp 40 million per year, while the 11 locations in Manngarai receive 100 million every three months. This gives each location close to 40 million rupiah each year -- a similar budget to Suropati Park in Menteng.
Despite this, both Rachmati and Sarwo believe the residents should contribute to the parks maintenance. They also say the lack of aesthetics is due to the local residents.
"They don't have enough space to dry their clothes so they put them on the park fence," Rachmati said.
It seems that while Jakarta's green spaces are buried in rubbish, government responsibility is buried in bureaucracy.
The money set aside for cleaning is either not being used or the cleaning contractors are neglecting their obligations. Either way, the children and residents are the ones being left with substandard green spaces.
Tifa Asrianti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
In response to the city's lack of a proper waste system, several community members have taken it upon themselves to manage and recycle garbage.
Using simple recycling methods, they turn the waste into useful products, to the benefit of themselves and the city.
Endang Wardiningsih, a chemistry teacher at SMU 34 Pondok Labu high school in South Jakarta, said her concern about the waste problem in Jakarta grew as she took her students to Kepulauan Seribu regency in the 1990s. She wanted to help save the environment, but did not know what to do.
"In 1996, I heard about a seminar on garbage and its effect on the environment and I immediately grabbed the chance," Endang told The Jakarta Post.
Supriyadi DS, a resident of Susukan subdistrict, East Jakarta, had another reason to start recycling.
"It all began when our neighborhood unit joined a green competition. We needed fertilizer for our trees and plants, so we sorted our garbage and made fertilizer from the organic waste," Supriyadi told the Post.
While most people look down on garbage as useless, a waste management company in Bekasi, West Java, begs to differ.
PT Mittran was established by Hidayat more than 15 year ago with just a few employees. It has now grown to employ around 50 workers.
At first, the company produced agricultural machines, garbage choppers and other garbage processing machines. In 2003, the company started processing the garbage in its neighborhood.
"We wanted to reduce the amount of garbage while changing the mind-set that garbage is useless," Roy Kuntjoro, Hidayat's partner, told the Post last month.
Though they took different paths to recycling activity, all these individuals and companies have empowered the community to reduce waste and garbage in their neighborhoods.
Endang said she involved her students in recycling through the school's extracurricular Youth Scientific Project (KIR), held every Saturday.
"I don't have to tell the students what to do with the garbage anymore. The senior students teach the younger ones. Some of the senior students are invited to events to explain our recycling activities. The knowledge has been recycled as well," Endang said.
Supriyadi also gets support from his neighborhood unit chief, subdistrict chief and all the prominent figures in the neighborhood.
"We now sort our garbage into three categories: wet, dry and hazardous garbage. The wet garbage will be processed into fertilizer, while the rest will be taken to the final dump or taken by scavengers," he said.
PT Mittran also gets full support from the neighborhood unit chiefs who use its services. Roy said the company dispersed information on the program to the unit chiefs.
At first, the chiefs were doubtful. But after seeing how the program worked, they felt the benefit as their neighborhoods became cleaner, he said.
Seeing the success, people in other neighborhood units were interested in joining the program. In just three months, the company covered seven neighborhood units and it keeps growing.
"Now we serve 3,000 families around this area. We pick up 1.5 tons of garbage every day using three pickup trucks. We have around 20 workers to collect and process the garbage," he said.
The garbage processing in the Susukan neighborhood unit and at the school is done mostly by hand, while Mittran uses choppers to slice garbage into small pieces.
Endang said the recycling work at the school included making souvenirs, fertilizer and recycled paper. The souvenirs, such are key chains and refrigerator magnets, are made of pulp formed by cake casts. The fertilizer is made of leaves from surrounding trees and leftovers from the school's cafeteria. The recycled paper is made from newspapers and other paper.
To process the garbage, Mittran employs elementary school drop-outs or vocational school graduates. Roy said some of the workers are former thugs or ex-convicts.
Roy said the company put garbage bins in residential areas and picked up the garbage every day, charging each customer Rp 30,000 a month.
He said one bin could be used for one family or more. He added that the company sent out 45 new bins every week.
"It is much easier using garbage bins than cement bins in front of houses. We can load the garbage into the trucks in one or two minutes," he said.
Roy said after the garbage was brought to the garbage processing site, it was chopped and sieved to separate it.
Some of it is made into fertilizer by mixing it with peat and cow dung, while the rest is packed into brick sizes and used as fuel for Indocement, a cement factory.
Mittran has a contract with Indocement to supply 10,000 tons of refused derived fuel (RDF) per month.
"The cement factory wants to reduce its charcoal usage by 5 percent. They wanted to try the RDF and so far they are satisfied with the product," he said.
He said Mittran had two other garbage processing sites beside the one in Bekasi. One is located in Citeureup and the other in Gunung Putri, both in Bogor and incorporated with Indocement.
Udin, a resident who lives near the company, said he had been using Mittran's service for one year. He shares a garbage bin with a neighbor.
"My neighborhood is now cleaner than others who don't use Mittran's service," he said.
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Some 250 cubic meters of garbage in West Jakarta is not being transported to temporary dump sites each day because of the poor condition of the municipality's garbage trucks.
As many as 82 of the municipality's 164 garbage trucks are more than 15 years old, Amir Sagala, an executive officer with the West Jakarta Sanitation Subagency, said Monday.
"We are not supposed to use trucks which are more than 10 years old," he said.
Trucks in proper working order are generally able to carry between six and 16 cubic meters of garbage, depending on their size.
Households and factories in West Jakarta produce approximately 5,500 cubic meters of trash each day.
Amir said some of the 250 cubic meters of garbage left lying around each day would be turned into compost or be naturally destroyed.
"However, some of it is thrown into rivers," he said.
He said his office had just finished constructing five temporary garbage disposal centers in the Kembangan, Palmerah, Cengkareng, Kebon Jeruk and Kalideres districts.
He said each dump site was equipped with sophisticated and environmentally friendly machines.
However, Amir said his office was still not sure when the dump sites could be used.
"We are now giving training to our officials on how to operate the machines," he said.
Amir said the five new centers would accelerate the garbage transportation process to the final dump site in Bantar Gebang, Bekasi.
The municipality currently operates about 30 temporary dump sites.
To handle garbage in the area, the subagency has 724 employees, including drivers and street sweepers.
Several neighborhood units in busy areas such as Kota and Kembangan also employ people to transport garbage using carts.
Zakar, a Kembangan resident, said five workers transported trash in his neighborhood using carts every two days. He said he paid the workers Rp 20,000 (US$2.1) each month to collect rubbish from his fruit stall.
"But other residents who do not own businesses pay Rp 10,000 monthly," he said.
He said he did not mind paying the workers as they worked hard transporting trash.
"They offer a good service. There are piles of trash in my neighborhood."
Zakar said he and his neighbors often also burnt their trash.
"The trash just turns solid or blows away," he said. (ewd)
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government expects a bill threatening fines and jail time for those who dispose of garbage in rivers can help prevent recurring flood problems.
State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar said the absence of regulations on garbage disposal was behind current flood disasters in several regions.
He said garbage-clogged rivers triggered flooding, especially in urban areas.
"It is common for people to dump garbage into river," he said at a press conference on Friday.
"That's why, once we have the waste management law, I promise to implement it seriously. There won't be any compromise as regards violators."
A first-ever bill on garbage is expected to be passed this year.
Rachmat said he would "urge the House of Representatives to pass it into law within two months" and that implementation would follow as soon as possible thereafter.
The draft bill submitted by the government deals with reduction and disposal of garbage and covers the daily activities of the general public. It prohibits dumping and burning garbage in open areas.
The law would require households to separate organic and non-organic garbage.
Garbage in the country's urban areas, most of which comes from households, has long been a sensitive issue.
The sanctions available for improper garbage disposal will be further elaborated within regional ordinances.
As a basic outline, the law provides that bringing waste into Indonesian territory is punishable with a fine of up to Rp 2 billion (US$212,000) or five years in prison.
Fines of Rp 1.5 billion or a three-year sentence would apply to those operating recycling and other waste businesses without permits from the ministry.
The ministry reported that garbage disposed into the country's 36 largest rivers contributes to their severe pollution.
The recent floods and landslides that struck Central and East Java killed over 100 people while the overflowing of Java's longest river, the Bengawan Solo, displaced tens of thousands.
The ministry said Java would remain prone to landslides during rainy seasons.
According to a ministry count, there are some 600 flood and landslide high risk areas in East Java, 531 such areas in Central Java and 430 in West Java.
It is estimated that Indonesia produces some 21,000 tons of household waste daily.
The Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) suggested the bill also include provisions on recycling in connection with the production of consumer goods to help reduce household garbage.
Meanwhile, lawmakers suggested the government promote the use of high-tech waste treatment plants to deal with rising waste.
The bill currently provides that regions producing 1,000 tons or more of daily waste have waste treatment plants.
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The idea that Jakarta will be flooded by 2050 seems to have taken hold in the media. Those who support it are scientists, green activists and politicians. Most of them believe climate change will raise sea levels, and, compounded by the sinking of Jakarta's land, speed the pace of flooding.
Whether or not the city sinks below the sea by 2050, floods have hit the capital annually and they strike with greater severity once every few years. Severe floods have become more frequent. At first the interval was 17 years, from 1979 to 1996; another struck six years later in 2002; another five years later in 2007.
Experts have said the trend will likely continue and the interval will keep shrinking unless the city does something to mitigate floods.
They also say the underlying cause of the floods is Jakarta's damaged environment. First, Jakarta's rivers are severely polluted. They are strangled both by garbage and by the construction of housing on their banks. Second, Jakarta's water catchment areas are dwindling due to unchecked urban development, which has left only 8 percent of the capital green. Third, overexploitation of groundwater and again, urban development, have hastened the sinking of Jakarta's land. The city is dropping at an average of 8 centimeters per year, according to one estimate -- faster than the rising sea level estimated at .57 centimeters.
What has the administration done about floods in the past year?
Governor Fauzi Bowo has included flood mitigation in his 100-day program. Weeks after he was elected governor, the rainy season arrived. And it's business as usual for many people.
Main streets in the capital are still inundated after heavy downpours. The drainage apparently does not work very well. Regularly flooded areas are flooding, just as they have in the past.
Meanwhile, the garbage is still heaped in mountains in Jakarta's rivers; efforts to scoop it out have been ineffective. Apparently, the garbage just keeps coming. A man who helped the city clean the Manggarai sluice gate said to the press that his job was neverending, due to the "super" amount of garbage.
The city administration's efforts so far have involved dredging rivers and evicting riverbank people every year -- a step that requires much energy and money with questionable results. The city has also repeatedly fixed and added pumps to move floodwater from the city to the sea or rivers.
Those measures are necessary, but they are like trying to cover a hole in a deflating tire with tape. The hole just gets bigger and costs more to repair.
Deputy Governor Prijanto said the funding to revitalize rivers was not enough. Prijanto complained that Jakarta had only Rp 270 billion (US$30 million) to mitigate floods, while it needed Rp 1.2 trillion.
As much as Jakarta's rivers need dredging, as many hydrologists and public works experts always say, they will constantly need large expenditures if the city does not come up with more lasting solutions, such as improving waste management.
The administration's long-term solutions so far involve big projects. The most famous one is the construction of the East Flood Canal, which has been halted since the Dutch colonial administration. It is now being hampered by land disputes. Fauzi has stated that he will finish acquiring land for the canal by the end of his 100-day program on Jan. 15.
Other projects are the revitalization of water reservoirs throughout the city and the construction of a large dam upstream on the Ciliwung.
A new proposal came up at the end of former Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso's administration. The city considered building a multi-purpose tunnel aimed at solving water shortages and sanitation problems as well as floods.
Early estimates said the project, which is still undergoing a feasibility study, would cost Rp 4.37 trillion. However, later projections put the price tag at four times that amount. There has been no further news about this plan. Reports have shown that for Jakarta, maintaining big projects is often problematic. Lack of trained human resources and money are often the excuse for equipment rotting away.
All of these projects might help mitigate Jakarta's floods. But they are all big undertakings requiring large amounts of money right from the feasibility study all the way through to maintenance. They would also take a large investment of human resources.
In addition to such big projects, the city should seek more grassroots solutions involving residents and the business sector, especially developers. Reports from across the world have shown that participatory projects are more effective and sustainable. They cost less but they take a longer and more continuous effort, which is why they are less popular with Jakarta administrations.
A campaign aimed at domestic waste management seems increasingly necessary, because households produce more than 50 percent of the city's garbage. Households also contribute a lot to the garbage clogging the rivers.
The city has a 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) campaign. So far, however, only 20 subdistricts out of hundreds have applied the 3R system. The city's promotional efforts have slacked.
Budirama Natakusumah, the head of Environmental Management Board (BPLHD), said his office did not plan to continue or revive the 3R campaign. However, his board has launched another campaign concerning waste and water catchment areas. It revives the idea of absorption wells throughout the city. Households can make biopore holes to help absorb floodwater while revitalizing the groundwater supply.
The biopore idea and efforts to get developers to install absorption wells have not proved very popular, however, perhaps because of the novelty of the idea.
Tackling floods should not be the responsibility of the city administration alone. Millions of residents, as well as the business sector, should help contribute to mitigation. Concerted efforts should be made because floods affect everybody in the city.
Thus, to flood or not to flood is not exactly the question. The city is flooded anyway and everybody should do something.
Enri Damanhuri, Bandung, The Jakarta Post
A major flood threatens Jakarta. At least that is what was implied by the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG), which predicted that a high tide of up to 2.2 meters will affect northern Jakarta within the next few weeks, with the worst affected areas expected to be Penjaringan and Pluit. High levels of precipitation could also cause floods of up to half a meter deep in Cawang, Cakung, Jatinegara, Pancoran and Rawa Jati (Kompas, Dec. 5).
This is concerning, at least for us Jakartans and other residents of coastal areas. One problem that has not yet been solved is how to manage our garbage to avoid flooding. Now we have to add high tides to the list of threats.
The easiest answer to the question as to what causes the floods nowadays is the dramatic impact of global warming affecting all parts of the world. The floods are caused by bad weather and storms, and the melting ice is affecting the flow of water, leading to deluges.
However, we may have forgotten another reason that needs to be addressed: the intensive coastal reclamation work in North Jakarta was one of the cause of the floods from Ancol to Kapuk Naga at the end of November.
We may wonder about the floods in the U.S. or UK due to Hurricane Katrina or the heavy rains that caused the big rivers of Europe to overflow. Countries that are well-developed in terms of surface water management, through well-prepared drainage systems, pumps and control dams, in addition to proper waste management, where it is rare to find garbage plugging up the system, still have to deal with the problem.
Surely the rising waters will wreak havoc in developing countries, that are still only introducing such technology, as in Indonesia.
Floods do not just transport water. They contain bacteria, germs and domestic waste. It's no secret that the floodwaters also contain dangerous substances, such as hazardous chemical waste.
We face many problems in handling floods in Jakarta: from preventing the floods and reducing their impacts, to appraising and repairing the damage after the floods so as to prevent them from happening again.
There needs to be legal consequences for those who cause losses and causalities, whether intentionally or otherwise. The Environmental Management Law (No. 23/1997), which makes pollution a criminal offense, needs to be used as a point of reference by the authorities so as to discourage those who do not respect the environment and contribute to its destruction by either purposely mismanaging or carelessly managing waste.
When faced with flooding, people are normally most concerned about saving themselves and their material and productive assets. But what about the dangerous waste that can pollute the water and leech into the ground? This is especially worrying given the number of both large and small industries located in north Jakarta.
There needs to be strict law enforcement by the environmental authorities and related institutions to control how industrial waste is managed so as to avoid people falling sick or dying because they come into contact with dangerous chemicals during the floods.
The stakeholders, all of us, need to take a stand to reduce the impact of improper waste management, and the international forum on climate change in Bali is the perfect opportunity for Indonesia to take action and think about how improper waste management, domestic and industrial, has contributed to polluting our environment.
In order to affect a change in mentality and behavior among the Indonesian people, routine and ongoing socialization of good environmental practices and strict law enforcement of environmental regulations are necessary. The government, as one of the main stakeholders, needs to fulfill its role as the main agent of change by widely distributing information to the public and corporations about the importance of proper waste management, especially for industry-generated hazardous waste.
Let us not forget that waste management, especially urban waste that consists mainly of organic carbon substances, is a significant contributor to greenhouse emissions, especially since waste management systems in Indonesian landfills (TPAs) create methane gases that are improperly managed.
It is commonly known that the greenhouse effect of methane gas is 21 times worse than that of CO2. Of course, this does not mean that we have to blindly apply the values or emission factors provided by experts from developed countries. It requires systematic mapping to explain how proper waste management can serve as one of the important contributors to the effort to reduce greenhouse emissions in Indonesia.
From a management aspect, a program to reduce greenhouse emissions needs to start with the basics; the implementation of the 3-Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). This program can be socialized among garbage and industrial waste generators through discussion panels to formulate rules of conduct involving all relevant parties.
At least there will be a symbiosis of mutualism; both horizontally and vertically. More importantly, municipalities and industry players need to start managing their waste properly. When they realize that the hazardous waste generated by companies in their areas requires professional handling, according to the environmental rules and regulations, they will come to realize that they need to delegate this task to professional companies that specialize in industrial waste management.
As waste management is their core business, they will have the facilities and capabilities needed to ensure that the waste will be properly managed and will not damage the environment. To quote the old saying, "We should leave it to the experts." It's still not too late for this.
The writer is a professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). He can be reached at e_damanhuri@ftsl.itb.c.id
