Residents of Pasir Bajing hamlet in Sukaraja village, Banyuresmi district in Garut, West Java, have obstructed the entrance to a landfill near their residence on Tuesday, July 21, 2015. Residents blocked the entrance by piling garbage up to 80cm high at the entrance of the landfill – effectively preventing garbage trucks from dropping off trash at the site.
Residents also put up signs around the site, stating their objections to the site being used as a landfill, and demanding the immediate closure of the landfill.
Previously, residents have complained because the site manager continued to burn trash at the landfill, one night before Eid al-Fitr. “They did not cease operations throghout the month of Ramadan, we even saw huge flames rising up the night before Eid,” said the Head of Neighbourhood Unit (RW) 02 of SukarajanVillage, Asep Suparman to Tempo at the protest site.
According to Asep, the fumes that resulted in the haphazard burning of rubbish at the site has caused incidence of asthma and Upper Respiratory Tract Infections to soar in his area – which he believes to have stemmed from the fact that the smoke often engulfes his village, which is located some 500 metres from the landfill.
Asep also said that he had repeatedly called the local Environmental Agency to no avail. “They repeatedly said that they are too busy dealing with illegal street vendors – what does that have to do with the environment?’ he said.
A fire truck came as an emergency back up when the protest flared – but residents promptly forced it to back away. “You should have come yesterday or even earlier! Fires like this have happened before!’ shouted the frustrated residents.
The Head of Garut’s Environmental Agency, Aji Sukarmaji, said that landfill fires are not something that the site operators do on purpose – rather, it is caused by the combination of the dry season and the concentration of methane gases that rises up from the decomposing garbage. “Fridtion causes sparks that may turn into a fire,” he said..
Aji said that his officials always deploys a fire engine everytime a fire is reported, so the fires do not spread and threaten the safety of residents around the site.
“The lack of sophistocated garbage processing mechanisms have also forced us to simply dump rubbish at the site, which makes it prone to fires,” said Aji, who promised that by next year, the Agency will have prepared a more efficient way of handling garbage at the site.
Aji said that his officials have negotiated with the protesting residents to end their protest. “The landfill will start operating again tomorrow,” he said.
Many returning Homecoming travellers were impacted by the protest – because the site is located near the Southern route between Leles and Nagreg. TEMPO/SIGIT ZULMUNI