Firms awarded for waste management

Headline News
Thursday, December 21, 2006
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Eighty-five private firms were given awards Wednesday for properly treating their liquid waste by the Jakarta municipal administration.

The firms were shortlisted from 746 industries, hospitals, hotels, apartments, offices, shopping malls, supermarkets and shops in Jakarta, which routinely send their waste to the city environmental management board's laboratory.

Criteria for the award -- best performance in liquid waste management -- is based on compliance tests of the firms' waste undertaken every three months at the agency's laboratory, the levels of waste water produced, and daily waste monitoring reports sent to the agency.

"We need serious treatment to maintain water quality in Jakarta, because the water conditions here are getting worse, while groundwater remains the dominant resource for drinking water," Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso said at the event.

The award was presented for the first time and the event is expected to be be held annually.

Sutiyoso estimated about 22,500 industrial establishments in Jakarta posed a risk to groundwater because they did not have any waste water treatment facilities.

"Some might do it on purpose. They just don't want to be responsible and don't care about the environment," he said.

He said that the administration would soon start a get-tough policy on such negligence. It would send warning letters to uncooperative companies and revoke their licenses if they did not improve their liquid waste management, he said.

Budirama Natakusumah, the head of city's environmental management board, said the gubernatorial decree on domestic waste management required every house and public building to install a wastewater treatment facility to reduce the risk of groundwater contamination.

"It is necessary to always remind enterprises and industries to treat their liquid waste before dumping it into rivers or other waterways," Budirama said.

He hoped a bylaw on liquid waste treatment would be produced soon to reduce pollution in the capital. (02)