Published in Bali Daily/The Jakarta Post Monday, March 11 2013
While the Balinese Hindu faithful perform a series of religious rites to welcome their sacred Day of Silence, or Nyepi, which is fast approaching, the capital city Denpasar will again silently fight its largest battle of the year — against trash.
“Indeed it’s true. We fight our largest war against garbage every year during the Nyepi holidays,” head of trash collection services at the Denpasar Sanitation Agency Nyoman Astawa told Bali Daily on Saturday.
He acknowledged that the trash accumulated through the days of Nyepi’s series of various rituals, including Melasti (the purification), Pengerupukan (the battle against evil) and Ngembak Geni (family gathering) amounted to the largest quantity compared to that produced during other Balinese Hindu religious days, like Kuningan and Galungan.
On regular days, Denpasar produces around 2,500 cubic meters (cbm) of garbage. Astawa estimated the accumulation of trash throughout the Nyepi holidays could reach up to 6,000 cbm per day, mostly in the form of religious offerings, the remains of the ogoh-ogoh effigies burnt during the night of Pengerupukan, and household waste, both organic and inorganic.
About 4 to 5 cubic meters of trash equals 1 ton.
Manager of Cemara waste depot in Sanur Kaja village in Denpasar, Made Sunarta, recently said: “I’m having a headache with the growing amount of trash. This upcoming Nyepi, the accumulation of trash will be at its worst, as my staff will all be off for the holidays.”
During religious days, the depot usually takes at least twice the daily volume of 8 cbm of trash, equivalent to the capacity of four garbage trucks.
As Melasti already started on Friday, the volume of trash, especially along the beaches of Denpasar —Sanur, Padanggalak and Mertasari, was up to 120 cbm, triple the norm.
Nevertheless, Astawa gave his assurances that the Denpasar Sanitation and Parks Agency was ready to battle the trash. “We will deploy our emergency squads to handle the trash produced during Pengerupukan night. They will work all out until dawn on Nyepi and work again from early morning the day after Nyepi to ensure the streets are clear of rubbish,” said Astawa.
Squads of 600 sweepers and a battalion of 1,000 garbage collectors will be cleaning up the trash on 113 streets around Denpasar. The garbage collection battalion is equipped with a total of 19 garbage trucks with a capacity of up to 12 cbm each. These vehicles are deployed by both the sanitation and parks divisions at the agency.
“This is truly a war. That’s why we call our guys the emergency troops and battalion,” Astawa said.
When asked whether the local communities themselves would engage in the cleanup after the rituals, Astawa said: “Well, we cooperate with a few traditional villages, such as Sanur and Kesiman, to clean up the beaches. On a daily basis, we have also urged the residents to initiate community-based waste management and to reduce plastic use when performing their rituals.”
“But we have to understand that this is how the religious rites have always been performed in Bali. We can’t demand much from the residents. Instead, the administration is adapting to the way the Balinese perform these traditions,” said Astawan, who is also a senior pemangku (temple priest) in his village in Canggu, which is in the neighboring regency, Badung.
Last year, reportedly, a troop of 1,500 street sweepers and trash collectors were sent out. Yet, piles of trash equivalent to some four garbage trucks were left unpicked and scattered in the Sesetan area, as well as suburban streets like Jl. Gunung Agung, Jl. Supratman Timur and Jl. A. Yani.
Anyone care to join this year’s trash battle, then?
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