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Residents threaten to close down landfill in Bekasi
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Scavengers collect garbage at the Bantar Gebang landfill in Bekasi, West Java. (Tempo/-)
D
ozens of residents living near the Bantar Gebang landfill in Bekasi, West Java, have threatened to forcefully close down the facility -- owned by the Jakarta administration -- should they not be paid compensation as promised by the facility’s management by next week.
The residents, who visited the landfill’s management office on Wednesday, said they had yet to receive compensation called uang bau (literally meaning smelly money) from the management, which should be paid every three months to residents. Each household living near the landfill was promised Rp 200,000 (US$14) in monthly compensation for living with the smell of garbage.
“We will see by Monday. Today we are only giving a warning [to the management],” said a local resident, Tajiri, as quoted by tempo.co.
He added that tens of thousands Bantar Gebang residents only wanted what was rightfully theirs.
“We don’t care how they disburse the money. We only want to receive the money on time.”
Nearly 18,000 people in three villages around Bantar Gebang (TPST Bantar Gebang) have been living amid the lingering stench of trash since the landfill was established three decades ago to receive waste from Jakarta.
Separately, a senior official at the Bekasi administration, Dadang Hidayat, said the delay in payment was caused by “technical and administrative problems”.
Therefore, to meet the residents’ demands, the administration plans to use the Bekasi city budget to pay the uang bau allocations. “Hopefully, the compensation can be channeled to the residents next Friday,” Dadang said. (vny)
