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or decades, Sunter Jaya, a subdistrict of Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta, has epitomized the city’s class struggle.

Located next to the affluent area of Kelapa Gading and front-facing Tanjung Priok port, it has been a center of trade and a residential area for middle-lower class citizens that support the rich districts as well as home
industries.

The neighborhood units 6, 8 and 12 of Community Unit No. 3 have long been known as a cluster for producers of tempeh (fermented soybean cake). About 118 families live and run businesses in the area since the era of former president Soeharto.

Kasmat, 68, one of the tempeh producers, said he had moved to Sunter Jaya in 1979 from Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, because that place had already been too crowded with tempeh-makers.

Back in the day, the production of tofu and tempeh was a lucrative business for small and medium enterprises, since the import of soybeans, which are still not grown domestically until now, was centralized, which guaranteed small producers access to the raw material at affordable prices.

“There was empty land to build a house and produce tempeh here, so I moved in,” Kasmat told The Jakarta Post on Sunday, adding that Sunter Jaya was still empty and swampy when he moved in, which attracted other tempeh producers.

Kasmat said the Indonesian Tofu and Tempe Cooperative (KOPTI) was still active, controlled imports and subsidized producers until Soeharto stepped down in 1998. Afterward, the import of soybeans was controlled by large businesses, leaving each cluster of producers to fight on their own.

Their existence is currently under threat, as the Jakarta administration has blamed them as being one of the causes of severe pollution of Sentiong River, also known as Kali Item (Black River) for its dark color and foul odor.

The river has been a focus during the preparation of the Asian Games as it is located next to the athletes village in Kemayoran, which will host thousands of foreign athletes.

The administration has criticized the producers for dumping untreated waste into the river for years.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno said Sunter tempeh producers should stop their production during the sporting event.

The production process for tempeh requires a lot of water and can take up to three days.

The process starts with boiling the raw soybeans before soaking them in cool water, both commonly used groundwater.

The next step is to peel the soybeans using a peeling machine, before rinsing them again, this time with cool tap water.

After rinsing, the soybeans are packed into plastic bags, and yeast is added to turn them into tempeh.

Wili, 29, an employee of a tempeh home industry owned by local resident Warniah in Sunter Jaya, said the industry generated two kinds of waste, solid waste in the form of soybean skins and wastewater.

The soybean skins are usually packed into gunny sacks to be used as animal feed on farms in Bogor, West Java.

“We are used to just dumping our wastewater into the gutter. It’s only now that we [are in the spotlight] over [that practice],” Wili told the Post.

He said it was common practice among the producers, with nobody ever telling them how to properly handle the wastewater.

Given the lack of a proper sewerage system in the area, the wastewater from the tempeh production, together with other household waste, flows into the Sentiong. Members of the Gadjah Mada University Alumni Family in Jakarta (Kagama Jakarta) have recently helped by spraying 2,500 liters of a microbial liquid to reduce the smell of the water.

The group distributed 100 bottles of the microbial liquid on Sunday and told the producers to add it into the wastewater from the tempeh production before dumping it.

Kagama Jakarta representative Sodiq Suhardianto said the producers should still be allowed to produce.

“The main problem of Sentiong River is that it is contaminated with domestic waste, including from home industries like the tempeh producers,” Sodiq told the Post.

He said tempeh production should not be suspended, since that would affect the tempeh supply and price in the city as well as the incomes of the tempeh producers.