After having been complained by the residents, trash piles on a 5,000-square-meter land in RT 01/10, Ciracas, East Jakarta, started to be picked up by the janitors on Thursday (4/10). Due to the area is a flood-prone, the land will be acquisitioned if the landowner agreed, and turned into small reservoir.

Due to difficult access to the location and high volume of the trash, the trash transportation uses carriages to transport the trash to dump truck and is targeted to finish on Sunday (4/13)

“The trash piles cleaning involved 30 janitors. Due to difficult access to the location and high volume of the trash, the trash transportation uses carriages to transport the trash to dump truck and is targeted to finish on Sunday (4/13) . Before the trash sent to Bantar Gebang Final Disposal Site (TPA), all of it is put first in Kelapadua Wetan Disposal Site (TPS),” stated Ciracas Sub-District Head, Romi Sidharta, Thursday (4/10).

After the area is cleaned, productive trees like guava, mango, and rambutan, will be planted there. But since there is no disposal site, the residents are still allowed to dispose trash at the site, precisely just on the corner of the land to prevent trash from scattering all over the area. Moreover, every day there will be two janitors to transport the trash. Those janitors will be paid by the residents themselves and coordinated by local RT officials.

“We’ll also summon the landowner to take responsibility to maintain and secure the land. If the landowner agreed, we will acquisition the land to be transformed into small reservoir to prevent flood from happening again here,” he uttered.

Abas (63), one of RT 01/10 Ciracas residents, said that he is happy because the government handled this matter directly. He hopes the janitors would pick up the trash routinely to prevent it from turning into source of diseases.

“Many people got sick now because the trash piles are filled with maggots which sometimes reached our houses during flood. We hope the janitors would routinely pick up the trash every day. We are ready to pay dues for the sake of clean environment,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, Head of Facilities and Infrastructures Section for East Jakarta Water Management Public Works Sub-Department, Supriyanto, admitted that RW 10 Ciracas is indeed a flood-prone area. Thus, his party will follow up residents’ request.

“We’re waiting for a letter from the urban village or sub-district to be followed up to our boss. Small reservoir is indeed appropriate to be built there, because the area is low and often flooded. But, there must be a study done first prior the reservoir construction,” he finished.