Ministers in Indonesia have given local communities and tourists fresh hope that the province’s rising waste management issues will be resolved in the near future.
During a visit to Bali, the Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, suggested that new solutions are being explored.
During a coordination meeting for the upcoming Bali International Airshow in Nusa Dua, Minister Pandjaitan acknowledged that Bali’s waste management problems have been amongst the most difficult of his professional career.
He told reporters, “The most difficult thing during my 10-year career here is managing waste, really managing waste; I repent for managing this waste, oh my.”
Minister Pandjaitan has spoken with provincial leaders in Bali and given them orders to explore more innovative and progressive solutions to the waste management problem.
Speaking directly to the Acting Governor of Bali, Sang Made Mahendra Jaya, Minister Pandjaitan said “It seems like the waste problem will be solved because we have found the technology after a long journey of 10 years.”
“So I ask the governor to please look at this waste and pay attention so that the waste from this area is clean.”
He noted that the government has set a target for Bali that in the next two years, the production of waste across the province will be dramatically reduced.
Minister Pandjaitan wants to see a specific focus on the Suwung TPA, the largest open landfill in Bali, due to its proximity to Nusa Dua, Sanur, and the newly developed Kura-Kura Special Economic Zone.
What is the solution to Bali’s waste management woes? According to Minister Pandjaitan, the solution is refuse-derived fuel, known as RDF.
He communicated to reporters his belief that with the continued improvement of waste processing at Suwung TPA and other open landfills across the province, in addition to RDF fuel production at integrated waste processing sites (TPST), the waste problem will soon be resolved.
Though many concerned residents and tourists will quip that process on Bali’s mounting waste management issues must be seen to be believed.
Though a critical approach is beneficial, there are some initiatives that are already making great strides in tackling this systematic problem.
In The Nusa Dua, for example, the resort area managed by BUMN PT Indonesian Tourism Development (ITDC), much of the waste produced by the area is processed and liquified, hidden in plain sight of some of Bali’s leading 5-star establishments.
In a press interview held in January 2024, the Operations Director for the ITDC, Troy Warokka, told reporters, “Through concrete steps, we hope to provide the best tourism expense while still prioritizing environmental sustainability.”
The Nusa Dua is home to twenty-two 5-star hotels that all together provide 5,485 rooms and can accommodate up to 21,000 guests.
According to Warokka, in reference to data shared by the Denpasar City Council, the average daily production of liquid waste from The Nusa Dua reaches 6,000 cubic meters, amounting to an average of 170,000 cubic meters per month.
The liquid waste lagoons cover 20 hectares and have a processing capacity of 10,000 cubic meters every day. The Nusa Dua has been using an integrated and independent waste management system for nearly fifty years.
While the liquid waste model used at The Nusa Dua is a fine example of sustainable waste management, it does not immediately resolve the island-wide issue of inorganic waste.
Landfills like Suwung TPA receive tonnes upon tonnes of mixed organic and inorganic waste every single day.
While integrated waste processing sites (TPST) are more widely used across Bali’s regencies, these facilities have a limited capacity, meaning huge amounts of unprocessed waste still end up in open landfills.
Minister Pandjaitan’s enthusiasm for the development of more refuse-derived fuel will be seen by many as a positive step, though how and where such processing facilities can or would be funded, constructed, and managed remains to be seen.
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Shorty
Friday 6th of September 2024
What's the point of setting a target 2 years out without firm workable plans and facilities already in place or under construction.
Exp
Friday 6th of September 2024
A minister fly with an RDF processing idea and Bali waste problems are finally sorted? Count me out.
Thommo
Friday 6th of September 2024
You will never stop locals in all of their islands throwing rubbish (anywhere) and burning their plastic and garbage. Decades of no educating in environmental awareness by governance, schools and villages is a national disgrace. I've seen its attitude all over Indonesia. Nothing has changed. When a male monopoly of corrupt cigarette smoking inept governance is in power what hope have they got. Very few there care.
Steve b
Friday 6th of September 2024
Why such a tourists focus on Bali's secret shame ? The rubbish washed up on beaches and dump in streets and just off main thoroughfares is not coming from tourists. Most tourist areas have some sort of rubbish pick up collection system so yes where that goes is problematic but far more problematic is the blatant dumping in riverbeds dry creeks down banks side of the road like I said waiting to be flushed out in first rains that's the big bali toilet flushing, locals dumping day and night when you yell at them they look at you dumbfounded as if YOUR stupid. So 99 % of rubbish illegally dumped and washed up on beaches etc is not from tourism it's not for another country it's not from Java it's not from again tourists and it's not from MARS its these people in the office in denpasar know they can't stop or solve the local tradition of dumping rubbish and are malu. All the rubbish that flows off the hillsides in first rains lovina singaraja areas that rubbish doesn't stay washed up on singaraja beaches no no it disappears south on its way down south bali and joins all the rest of Bali's washed out rainy rubbish like a BIG BALI TOILET. It's OK I don't want to be paid for stating the facts and the truth it's free. If you want to see it you can see it every day, if you want to go out of your way take your cameras and post it. The bigwigs offices in dps have rubbish bins and workers empty them. THE BIG BALI FLUSHING TOILET first rains you can set your clock by it
Steve b
Friday 6th of September 2024
Idiots, what about the rubbish thrown into dry Creek beds as we speak by locals everyday and night awaiting the first rains of rainy season. If it's happening in my banjar my desa it's happening all over bali there's no shame they are not malu