If I were to do something..
June 15, 2009Hmm.. This is the hardest part of the blog. But I’ve been thinking about this for two weeks, and what I’d really like to do is to house the people who has been living in the slums by the river at a different location. I’ve been thinking, if we could build a government funded housing, somewhere else in the city, moving them away from the riverbanks.
I understand that the government has been trying to move these people away, through transmigration programs. Since I was in the elementary school, we were taught about transmigration program. The definition: a program to reduce the population, especially in Java, by migrating people to another islands of Indonesia, where there are more abundant land and resources. And my understanding is, people who participate in the program will be given some funds to start their lives in the new dwellings. However, as I grew up, I have found out that the program has not been successful at all. Many people chose to come to Java, especially Jakarta, chasing the “dream” of earning a better living. And these people weren’t fond of the idea of being migrated somewhere else. And there are conflicting issues for the people who agreed to participate in the program. Some have been living better lives. But I have also heard about conflicts between migrants and the natives of the islands.
So I thought, transmigration didn’t work. That’s why I came up with the idea of building a free housing to accomodate the poor, and to move them away from the riverbanks. I know that they were not the only cause of the water pollution, but having them moved away may make it easier for the clean-up programs too. With less “clutter” by the riverbanks, clean-up programs can be done faster and hopefully cheaper.
One more thing, factories must, and I said MUST have their own recycling facilities. If I could, I will make a regulation so that factories aren’t allowed to be built or even to run their operations without having the proper waste management facilities. Because Jakarta and the island of Java are running out of land and space, dumpsites are getting overloaded too. And it is impossible to build or even open up anymore dumpsites than there already are. So I’m thinking, instead of migrating people to another islands, we can migrate waste to another islands, as long as they are properly maintained.
There they are. Things that I came up with. Any thoughts? Opinions?
So far, so good.
However, transporting waste somewhere else is not a long-term or even responsible solution. It’s akin to North America and Europe claiming that since China , Africa, and India create jobs with e-waste from west that it’s alright to allow unregulated e-waste traffic to continue without trying to focus on the root of the problem.
Just because we recycle or dump out of sight the crap from our unsustainable lifestyles, this doesn’t get to the core of the fact that we are a throw-away society. Government investment must include subsidising industrial processors in SEA so that all the junk that’s polluting vital water supplies can be made profitable to encouragePlastic bags should simply be banned eveywhere, not just in SEA.
In my city we have a legislated 5 cent surcharge for each plastic bag required at the check-out counter, and people still complain about paying it!
In some cases, people have to be forced to save containers and packaging and gradualy begin the habit of bringing alternative carrying items with them, just as everyone used to do before petroleum companies decided to branch out into thousands of plastics. I think the solution in such cases must be somewhat affordably invasive but not be so foreign as to exist outside the ability of Indonesia and states who have similar problems, to adapt to the challange using their own ingenuity and will-power.