Sanitary landfills to replace open dumps by 2013 in W. Java

Yuli Tri Suwarni ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Bandung   |  Sat, 06/20/2009 12:12 PM  |  The Archipelago

The West Java Environmental Agency is drafting a waste management ordinance to be enforced by 2013 that will see regional leaders face criminal charges if they continue to dump waste in open tips.

Agency head Setiawan Wangsaatmadja said the draft ordinance, an auxiliary regulation to the 2008 Law on Environment, carried charges of six months in prison and fines of Rp 500 million (US$50,000) for any mayor, regent or city waste management agency official who breached the terms. "We have gradually started introducing the sanitary landfill system. It is environmentally friendlier than the open-dumping system, which is highly not recommended," he told reporters Thursday.

A system of open dumping is still used in nearly all the 20 major dump sites in West Java. The practice, Setiawan said, was "very hazardous" to the environment because of the extreme air and land pollution it created, and contributed toward the worsening impact of global warming.

Massive open dumps have already taken a human toll, with more than 100 people buried alive under an avalanche of garbage on Feb. 21, 2005, at the Leuwigajah tip in Cimahi.

Setiawan said he suspected the incident was triggered by an explosion of methane from underneath the mounds of garbage that had been building for more than 20 years.

The West Java capital of Bandung, he said, had earned its notorious title of being the dirtiest city in Indonesia due to its association with these sites, he said.

Sudartoyo, waste management center secretary for the West Java housing agency, said the provincial administration had spent at least Rp 900 billion establishing three new dump sites in the region.

The planned sites, he said, included a site in Bogor's Cileungsi district. It will process waste from Bogor regency, Bogor city and Depok city.

The other two sites will be at Legoknangka in Bandung regency and in Leuwigajah, situated across both the Bandung regency and Cimahi city.

These two sites will process waste generated from Bandung city, Bandung regency and Bandung Barat regency, as well as the cities of Cimahi, Garut and Sumedang.

Sudartoyo said the funding would come from provincial, city and regent budgets, as well as the private sector.

He said 30 private firms had submitted proposals for waste management, many of which used sanitary landfill methods and suggested trapping methane, the byproduct of garbage, to generate electricity.

"We'll try to complete all the requirements, including land acquisition and environmental impact analysis, so we can open the public bidding process this year."

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