Customary village organizations, known locally as desa pakraman, recently agreed to include household waste management in their community regulations (awig-awig).
Denpasar Mayor IB Rai Dharmawijaya Mantra proposed the idea before customary village organization chiefs in Denpasar last weekend, in efforts to improve sanitation in Denpasar.
“Many people continue to violate the city’s regulations on waste disposal. People are reluctant to abide by these regulation because of their limited understanding and knowledge about how best to manage household waste.”
Denpasar residents already have a strict waste disposal service operating twice a day — once in the early morning and once again at night.
“We frequently see heaps of smelly garbage cluttering up every corner of the city. This may be one of the reasons why Denpasar can not retain its status as one of Indonesia’s cleanest cities. We failed to retain our Adipura Award this year”, the mayor said.
Each year the central government selects what it regards as the cleanest cities in Indonesia, and presents them with the Adipura Award. In Bali, this year the award went to the smaller city of Klungkung.
According to data from Denpasar Sanitation and Landscape Agency, the city produces between 2,000 and 2,500 cubic meters of organic and non-organic waste every day.
The office could only manage 60 percent of the daily total, while the remaining 40 percent was often left unattended or managed privately by households and community organizations.
“I call on every resident and members of desa pakraman to work together to clean our city,” the mayor said. “In Bali, traditional approaches can solve so many social problems. I believe we can also work on how to manage garbage in villages and urban areas properly.”
I Made Karim, the chief of Kesiman traditional village, said he supported the mayor’s idea.
“However, we cannot change the existing community regulations. We can include the idea as a meeting decision,” Karim said.
Denpasar has around 35 customary village organizations.
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