West Jakarta Will Start Fining Individuals Who Burn Trash

TheIndonesia.co - The city of West Jakarta has announced that it will start fining individuals who haphazardly burn trash, and authority said it is committed to take swift actions upon reports of the occurrence, in an effort to improve air quality in the municipality and province.

Head of environment office in West Jakarta Slamet Riyadi said a fine of Rp500,000 (US$35) will be imposed to those who are found burning trash, and it’s expected to prevent Jakartans from doing the hazardous act.

“We will impose fine. The idea is to make people aware and stop them from burning trash,” Riyadi said on Thursday, June 2, as reported by Antara.

Since trash burning contributes to the declining air quality in the city, the decision is seen urgent by the local authorities.

To enforce the regulation, Riyadi said his unit will directly monitor residential areas within West Jakarta, and the environment office will also take action on reports made by the public through the Citizen Relation Management (CRM) app on any trash burning activities.

However, prior to imposing the fine, authorities will first issue warning to the perpetrators, and they will only be fined if they continue burning trash in the future.

“We will not immediately impose fine. We will give them a warning first and raise awareness not to do it again,” Riyadi explained.

According to him, the environment office has mapped out areas in the city in which trash burning often takes place, including Cengkareng, Kalideres, and Kembangan.

However, so far, while warnings have been given, no fine has been imposed.