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Ahok, Bekasi mayor reach accord on garbage fiasco
Jakarta Governor Basuki âAhokâ Tjahaja Purnama and Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi called a truce in their recent garbage dispute after a meeting at City Hall on Wednesday
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akarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama and Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi called a truce in their recent garbage dispute after a meeting at City Hall on Wednesday.
Rahmat revealed that during the meeting, the two agreed on a number of points, including allowing Jakarta's trucks to operate 24 hours and adding more routes for the trucks.
'We understand that the issue of waste in Jakarta is of national interest, which cannot be disrupted. Therefore, we have agreed that Jakarta's garbage trucks may travel 24 hours a day, and may add more routes to travel from Jakarta to Bekasi,' Rahmat told reporters after a 30-minute meeting with Ahok.
Previously, Jakarta's garbage trucks only had one official route to travel to Bekasi's Bantar Gebang landfill, which was via the inner city toll road and only between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.
Rahmat said that in return, the Jakarta administration must provide funding for educational, health and infrastructure development for Bekasi.
'We have asked the Jakarta administration to fulfill its obligations to assist Bekasi in developing, among other things, education, health and infrastructure. Pak Ahok said that he would fully assist Bekasi,' Rahmat said.
In response, Ahok vowed that the Jakarta administration would assist Bekasi in developing education, health services and infrastructure by distributing a certain amount of funding.
Last month, Jakarta and Bekasi were involved in a bitter feud over waste management after Bekasi city councilors and the Bekasi Transportation Agency seized six of Jakarta's garbage trucks for traveling to Bantar Gebang outside their operational hours. Bekasi councilors threatened to close access to Bantar Gebang.
Ahok hit back by insisting that Bantar Gebang landfill stood on land owned by the Jakarta administration.
According to the contract between Jakarta and landfill operator PT Godang Tua Jaya (GTJ), the city pays GTJ Rp 114,000 (US$8.33) per ton it dumps in the landfill.
Ahok said that GTJ had breached its contract with Jakarta, and failed to develop waste management technology.
The row escalated as residents of Cileungsi, West Java, blocked Jakarta's garbage trucks from traveling through their area, which left trash piled up in the city's garbage disposal facilities for several days, until the Jakarta Police threatened to arrest individuals stopping the trucks citing disruption of a public service.
Ahok has said that the Jakarta administration was seeking to terminate its contract with GTJ in order to manage Bantar Gebang on its own.
Rahmat said the Bekasi city administration would fully support Jakarta should the latter terminate the contract.
'I have to admit that waste management in Bantar Gebang is not up to standard,' he said.
Ahok said his administration would terminate its contract with GTJ by sending three warning letters to the firm. On Friday, the city administration is set to send a second warning letter.
The city administration, Ahok said, had allocated funding in the 2016 draft budget for the Sanitation Agency, which would be in charge of managing the landfill.
'It is much more efficient for us to manage the landfill instead of a private firm,' Ahok said, adding that the city administration would simultaneously build intermediate treatment facilities (ITF) to treat waste in a bid to end the city's dependence on Bantar Gebang.
The ITF plan, which was initiated by former Jakarta governor Fauzi Bowo, is set to be developed in four areas: Sunter in North Jakarta, Semanan in West Jakarta, Cakung in East Jakarta and Marunda in North Jakarta.
However the city administration had yet to set a specific date as to when the plan would be materialized.
