DKI Provincial Government Denies the Issue of Throwing Waste into the River at the Tanah Kusir TPU, Says It is Only a Temporary Shelter 

JAKARTA - The DKI Jakarta Environmental Service (DLH) has denied allegations of dumping waste into the Pesanggrahan River in the Tanah Kusir TPU area, South Jakarta. This clarification was conveyed after the circulation of a post on the social media Threads which narrated the activity as waste dumping into the river.

DLH emphasized that the activities seen in the upload were part of the official operation of handling waste from water bodies, not dumping into the river.

Head of the Waste Handling Unit of the Water Agency (UPSBA) of the DKI Jakarta DLH, Dadang Cahya Rusdiana, explained that the location in question was a temporary storage point or official emplacement owned by UPSBA which was located in the Special Block of the Tanah Kusir TPU.

"We need to clarify, there is no waste disposal into water bodies. The activities that are visible are the official temporary storage of waste from water bodies and all operations at the location are well controlled by placing 1 unit of heavy equipment and regular transportation every day to the Perintis landfill," Dadang said in his statement, Thursday, March 26.

He explained, the point serves as a transit location for waste that is transported from rivers and reservoirs in the Pesanggrahan and Kebayoran Lama districts. The waste is then moved using a small tipper truck to the Perintis emplacement for further sorting.

After being sorted, residual waste will be transported using a large truck with the help of heavy equipment before being sent to TPST Bantargebang.

According to Dadang, the angle of shooting in the uploaded material that is circulating is suspected to have caused misunderstanding. The position of the photo which is parallel to the road makes the activity at the location look as if the garbage was thrown into the river.

"In fact, the activity is at a storage point managed by the Waste Handling Unit of the Water Agency and there is no discharge into the water body," he said.

He also explained that the condition of road access in the narrow Tanah Kusir TPU area made the waste containers could not be placed in the location. Therefore, the garbage is temporarily placed in the area below the embankment before being transported using the appropriate fleet.

DLH ensures that all activities remain in the designated area and do not come into direct contact with bodies of water, even though the location is adjacent to the Pesanggrahan River.

"We ensure that no garbage enters the water body. There is also a place to collect the remains of tree tops from the Tanah Kusir TPU by Distamhut. The location has also been equipped with blocking using HDPE floating cubes, and the entire management process is carried out according to SOP," said Dadang.