By APD writer Aditya Nugraha
JAKARTA, Dec.1 (APD) – Indonesia central government is keen to make waste management applied in Surabaya as national role model so as to generate economy aspect from city garbage.
Garbage and Hazardous Waste Management Director General at the Environmental and Forestry Ministry Rosa Vivien Ratnawati said that the capital of East Java province has an extraordinary commitment in managing city garbage issue.
The city was assessed of successful in its waste management drive aimed at giving the residents new life quality through extracting economic benefits from garbage.
“Surabaya is capable to do that, giving an excellent example. We already saw how it processes garbage into useful things like mixture of road constructions, bricks and energy source,” Rosa said recently.
She was referring to Surabaya’s modern waste processing facility of Benowo capable to process 1,600 tons of city garbage daily.
The facility located in Surabaya’s 37.4-hectare of city garbage disposal site now is able to produce 2 Mega Watt (MW) of electricity for households in Surabaya.
Surabaya city administration embraced private sector in 2012 to build the facility that worth 62 billion rupiah (about US$ 4.3 million). The second largest city in Indonesia won the Adipura Paipurna environmental award in Metropolitan city category from the central government for its cleanliness.
In her visit to observe operation of Benowo waste processing facility recently, representative of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Lisa Emelia Svensson said that Surabaya has successful in processing city garbage to prosper its residents, something that has attracted international community.
“The city major managed to make city more prosperous now with excellent handling on city garbage,” she said.
Surabaya Major Tri Rismaharini said that city administration would further expand the operation of Benowo facility in the future so as to make the city better and more comfortable for its residents.
A plan to develop gasification plant has been set to make the facility capable to expand power production up to 9 MW daily next year.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)