Can Waste Management be an Integral Part of Disaster Risk Management Efforts in Indonesia?3/14/2017 Rapid urbanization, unplanned development, lack of proper waste disposal measures, damaged ecosystems and thus leading to the environmental degradation and the consequent impact of these interrelated process exacerbates the existing risks and developed the new risks of disasters. According to the data from Ministry of Environment and Forest, Republic of Indonesia in 2015, an average person produces 0.7 kilogram of waste per day; and 175,000 tons of waste are being generated by 250 million of population producing across the country on a daily basic, amounting to 64 million tons of waste annually. Indonesia is also the second largest plastic polluter in the world according to the report of Science article 2015. In the capital city of Jakarta with the high density of population around 10 million, provisions of basic services facilities and garbage cans are mostly found in tourist / business district and are inadequate in other parts of the city where majority of people live, making Jakarta one of the most polluted capitals in the world. Due to still lack of waste disposal options in country, citizens still heavily rely on landfills for the generated waste. The 2005 waste avalanche at Leuwigajah dumpsite was also one of the serious disasters in Indonesia destroying households and killing over 100 people in flattened villages. The open dumping sites with the pile of rubbish will still have the risk of garbage avalanches unless they are not the sanitary landfill systems with the stable structured foundation. On the other hand, despite the effort of Ministry of Public Work on regularly cleaning up the rivers from the pile of trash, the effort became futile when there is lack of public awareness on their role and responsibility how to manage the garbage properly. Complications of garbage is one of the reasons for flooding problems in the cities of Indonesia, clogging the flood canals and flood reservoirs. All these daily garbage issues come together to create very intense flooding. (Eg. 2007 Jakarta flooding in Indonesia). It is important to encourage the effective and efficient solid waste management system through promoting public awareness on the uncontrolled garbage problems, as part of the integrated solution to the floods. The women at household level plays an important role in proper domestic waste management through the 3Rs method (Reuse, Reduce and Recycle) at the household level. Since 2005, there have been initiatives for independent waste management in central Jakarta where the housewives started managing the wastes by sorting out organic and inorganic waste at the household level. Citizens in that area started adopting that habit of proper waste management in order to reduce the impacts of floods, particularly in the rainy season. These good initiatives for waste management need to be encouraged and carried forward to improve recycling rate in Indonesia. Although the large amount of waste is not completely resolvable with 3Rs method, proper management starting at the household level can decrease the amount of solid waste at the source. With the full participation of waste generators, Indonesia should be active in taking approach of 3R and it needs to foster the the implementation of government programs on providing waste banks across the country through promoting the concept of 3Rs methods. Moreover, government needs to develop more innovative solutions with the alternative waste processing technologies (eg, Large scale incinerators) for effective and efficient of waste management to clean up the Indonesia’s worsening environmental record at global stage. Without improvements in general waste management, increased waste generation could generate the new disaster risks and lead to the greater obstacles in response and recovery stages at the times of disaster. Asides from the provision of better waste management facilities and services, therefore, communities should be prepared to reduce the impacts of disasters through behavior change by education and public awareness campaigns on proper waste management (solid waste management, drainage improvement). Programs such as Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) which are being widely implemented in Indonesia to build community resilience can be an effective mechanism as well as complementary program where waste management can be integrated as community members are at the forefront of managing disaster risk. The waste management problems to reduce the risks of particularly flood and landfills disasters problem could only be solved if the government and the community together make significant efforts. Reference
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
|