Pekanbaru, which has earned the Adipura Award as the cleanest major city in Indonesia for five consecutive years, could relinquish the title due to poor waste management.
Illegal garbage dumps are scattered along the city thoroughfares, such as Jl. Soekarno-Hatta, Jl. Sobrantas and Jl. Hang Tuah.
The foul-smelling garbage from households, restaurants and traditional markets has piled up because garbage trucks have not operated for days.
Pekanbaru Mayor Herman Abdullah said he was ashamed of the condition and was aware of the increasing volume of waste along greenbelt areas and public facilities.
Based on observations by the Pekanbaru Environmental Agency, there are at least 50 illegal garbage dumpsters in the city.
“I am not only displeased with the city’s sanitation and park agency, but also district and subdistrict heads. The increasing volume of garbage shows their lack of care despite the fact that I have arranged the coordination of waste handling and transportation,” he said Thursday.
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Everything must be neat and clean. Don’t let the Adipura assessment team find the garbage mounting.
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Herman added he had set a deadline until Sunday for the relevant agencies, district and subdistrict heads to clean the city of the piling waste. He expressed concern the the condition would influence this month’s Adipura assessment.
“Everything must be neat and clean. Don’t let the Adipura assessment team find the garbage mounting,” he said.
“The police must be involved in observing the condition and impose fines on those who litter.”
Although the Adipura team’s assessment for the first quarter still placed Pekanbaru in the first place with 68.76 points, Herman said the position could be taken over by Malang city, which was only 0.06 points behind.
“The difference is very small. If we fail to clean up now, Pekanbaru would be overtaken by other cities/”
Pekanbaru Sanitation and Park Office head Maiyulis Yahya acknowledged his office was overwhelmed by the garbage volume, which could reach 620 tons daily.
He said his office was only able to transport 126 tons of garbage to the Muara Fajar landfill daily.
“We can carry only 20 percent of the waste due to a limited fleet, as the 12 districts in Pekanbaru can only be served by 16 garbage trucks.”
Herman has asked district and subdistrict heads to raise collection fees to between Rp 1,000 (10 US cents) and Rp 5,000.
“The fees can be used to buy trucks and build more temporary garbage dumpsters in each district.”
