The Public Works Ministry has secured a $100 million loan from Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau, a German government-owned development bank, to build integrated solid waste management systems in five municipalities and districts in the country.
Budi Yuwono, director general of water resources, waste management and public facilities at the Public Works Ministry, said on Monday that the loan would be disbursed to build solid waste management facilities in Jambi province, the cities of Malang, Jombang and Sidoardjo in East Java and Pekalongan in Central Java.
The fund will be disbursed as grants to the regional governments and the central government will repay the loan, Budi said in a statement on Monday.
“This program is aimed to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by developing integrated waste management,” Budi said, adding that solid waste contributed about 6 percent of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Indonesia says it plans to reduce its green house emissions by 26 percent by 2020.
According to a 2008 law, regional governments are required to close all open-dump landfills by 2013. In their place, they must have an integrated solid waste management system in place.
The new waste management systems should include a recycling facility and sanitary landfill, where the waste is isolated from the environment until it is completely degraded biologically, chemically and physically.
The first phase of the program includes establishing sanitary landfills, building sorting and decomposing facilities and the closure of the existing open-dump landfills in the five regions, the ministry said.
The second phase of the program will be to build a refuse-derived-fuel plant that turn solid waste into combustible pellets for fueling power plants.
The ministry did not reveal the timeframe in which the first phase would be completed and the second one would be implemented.
