A. Indonesia's Poor Waste
Management System May Worsen the Pandemic
An investigation by Tempo magazine in February 2019 found that some waste management companies dumped the waste in eight military bases in East Java. Later investigation also found that a hospital in Pasuruan, East Java, sold their
medical waste to a recycling company.
Yet during the pandemic, medical waste has been found in landfills across Indonesia, such as Cipeucang landfill in
Tangerang, Banten; Bantar Gebang and Sumur Batu landfill in Bekasi, West Java; and Surabaya, East Java. Some of the
untreated medical waste would finally end up in Jakarta Bay.
The Director of Environmental Health at the Health
Ministry Imran Agus Nurali admitted that his directorate does not have the authority to monitor every medical facility,
saying that it is the responsibility of the Ministry of
Environment. Yet his directorate also does not monitor every private waste management company.
"If there's a company that improperly disposed of
biohazardous waste, we do not know," Nurali told Mongabay.
Dr. Mahesa Paranadipa Mikael from the Indonesian Law
Health Society (MHKI) said that waste management is a long process that involves many people. Yet millions of households have also produced medical waste such as face masks.
However, there is no sorting system that makes medical waste mixed with other types of waste.
"It can create new clusters," Mikael told Mongabay. "Because there are many people who collect the garbage at landfills.
It's dangerous."
Mohamad Nasir, chairman of Indonesian Hospitals Association (PERSI), said that medical waste should be specifically
treated. It should be disinfected before being incinerated. It should not be buried. However, there's no way for the
government to monitor this.
"On-site treatment with incinerators is the best way because it can shorten the lifespan of the virus on the surface so it will reduce the risk of infections," he said.
A dumping operator at Bantar Gebang landfill, Ahmad Rospeli admitted that during the pandemic, he found medical waste mixed with other types of waste inside trucks. But he claimed that the operators would refuse to accept medical waste to be dumped inside Bantar Gebang.
Bantar Gebang is said to be the largest landfill in the world established in 1986. More than 1,200 trucks from the capital dump their loads everyday. More than 7,000 tons of waste from Jakarta would be dumped on a daily basis. It is projected to overload in 2021.
The landfill lacks treatment facilities. It only has an
incinerator with the capacity of 100 tons per day that rarely operates. With the volume of waste that enters Bantar
Gebang everyday, they need at least 70 incinerators that operate 24/7 to eliminate the waste. With that said,
thousands of scavengers that flocked the landfill have important roles in bringing the garbage from the landfill to the recycling companies, something that the operators failed to do.
Rospeli admitted that the operational cost of incinerator is high and that the landfill operators could not afford it. "But we are trying our best to optimize this," he said. "We know we still have much to do."
Before the government finds the solution to treat medical waste, many people around the landfills—including Suranto—
will risk their lives while COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
Written by Adi Renaldi taken from https://pulitzercenter.org
B. HIGH CONCENTRATION OF PARACETAMOL FOUND IN INDONESIAN WATERSIGH CONCENTRATION OF CETAMOL FOUND IN INDONESIAN
Scientists are scratching their heads having to explain how Jakarta’s coastal waters became contaminated with
paracetamol, as has been discovered in a recent environmental study.
The study, published in August, has been making the rounds in Indonesia over the past few days, detailing trace amounts of paracetamol in seawater samples collected from effluent- dominated sites in Indonesia: four sites in Jakarta Bay and one on the north coast of Central Java.
“Interestingly, high concentrations of paracetamol were detected at Angke (610 ng/L) and Ancol (420 ng/L), both in Jakarta Bay,” the study said, adding that this was the first study to report the discovery of paracetamol in Indonesian waters.
The study did not seek to investigate the source of the contaminant, suggesting that further investigation is required.
Separately, the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) said no one has been able to determine where exactly in land the paracetamol waste came from.
“Us researchers are almost in unanimous agreement that 60 to 80 percent of the contaminant came from land, but the source could go all the way upstream to Bogor [and all of
Jakarta’s satellite cities],” BRIN researcher Zainal Arifin said today.
Yet BRIN is certain that there could only be three possible sources of the paracetamol contaminant: human urine or feces containing the drug trickling their way down the sewage and into the bay; waste from pharmaceutical
factories and hospitals; or expired drugs being tossed into the sea.
While the amount of paracetamol is too small to have any direct effects on humans, BRIN said more studies are required to determine its impact on marine life in the bay — and
whether or not fish caught from the bay are safe for human consumption.
“It’s likely that fish would swim away from areas with low oxygen content, but shellfish are more likely to stay put whatever the condition and they can die from
contamination,” Zainal said.
Source: coconut.co
