Residents build, finance green garbage dump

Triwik Kurniasari , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 07/17/2008 10:10 AM | City

Sunar, wearing a gray polo shirt, black trousers and a woven bamboo hat, was busy erecting a brick wall around a rubbish dump beside Jl. Nirbaya, Pinang Ranti, East Jakarta.

Despite the sun scorching his dark skin, the 60-year-old man seemed to be in high spirits.

GOOD FENCES MAKE GOOD NEIGHBORS: Residents build a brick wall around a dump at Jl. Nirbaya, Pinang Ranti, East Jakarta, on Wednesday. They hope the wall can help free their area from "flying" garbage, flies and its unpleasant odor. (JP/Triwik Kurniasari)

"The amount of garbage in the dump has been annoying residents around the area, including myself. I can smell the garbage from my house, which is about 100 meters from the site," he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He said he had started to build the wall on Tuesday, with the help of a few friends.

"I want to lend a hand because I'm jobless anyway," said Sunar, who worked alongside his buddy Rohmat.

Garbage has become one of the most irritating problems in the neighborhood. It had reached such a level in the front yard of every house that none of the residents could ignore it any longer.

The dump is no longer able to take the volume of garbage, as residents outside the district also dump their trash there, even though it has been closed since 2006.

Residents of Pinang Ranti had finally had enough and teamed up with subdistrict officials to revamp the 3,000-square-meter site into something more environmentally friendly.

The deputy head of Pinang Ranti subdistrict, Nasir Sugiar, said the dump had been mismanaged and unsupervised for years.

"The dump is actually provided for Pinang Ranti residents only, but in reality many people from other subdistricts, such as Cipayung or Taman Mini, also throw their garbage there," Nasir said.

"It's not easy to forbid people from other subdistricts from throwing garbage in the dump because it is accessible and is located beside the street."

During the Post's visit to the area, garbage was strewn all over the street and the smell was terrible. A mix of organic and nonorganic waste was mounting up in the site.

A few goats were wandering through the area, foraging for food among the piles of garbage. There were also some makeshift shelters, set up by squatters, in and around the dump.

Nasir said the new dump would be surrounded by a 1.4-meter-high brick wall so the garbage would not spill over onto the street.

"We will build an entry gate for garbage carts and trucks and a security post," he said.

They also plan to plant 150 trees they have received from the East Jakarta Park subagency around the wall.

"We plan to separate organic and nonorganic garbage and let the squatters sort them. We will later turn the organic waste into compost in the composting location," he said.

Nasir said the residents had got together to pay for the construction of the new dump.

"We have estimated that the construction will cost about Rp 50 million (US$5,475). It's hard to get that amount of money and we hope the East Jakarta sanitary subagency will provide financial assistance for us," he said.

Nasir said the construction's sustainability was now completely dependent on the residents.

Another resident, Suparman, 82, responded positively to the construction plan.

"The dump is really disturbing because I live only 20 meters away from the area. On windy days, I often find used plastic bags, which are carried by the wind, around my house. Flies are everywhere," said Suparman, who has been living in the area for 20 years.

"It's worst during the rainy season because Jl. Nirbaya, which is in front of my house, gets really muddy and dirty. So I hope that the new dump will improve conditions in the area," he said.

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