TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Acting Governor Heru Budi Hartono has spoken out about the cancellation of the city’s waste-to-energy plant project known as the Intermediate Treatment Facility or ITF Sunter. He said the city administration would have to spend Rp3 trillion a year on operating costs if the project was resumed.

“If we calculate it, how can the city spend Rp3 trillion,” Heru said in Jakarta, on Thursday, August 20, 2023, as quoted from Antara.

He confirmed that the project, which had been initiated since the era of Governor Joko Widodo or Jokowi, had to be stopped due to extremely high operating costs.

“I am not against ITF, as long as it is a business-to-business partnership and there is no tipping fee for the provincial government. We don't have money for such costs,” Heru added.

The regional government is required to pay the tipping fee to dispose of waste at the processing site. “The point is that Jakarta cannot afford the tipping fee. For now, we are focusing on RDF to address the waste problem,” Heru said, mentioning the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) Plant.

ITF Sunter is not halted

Previously, the Head of Jakarta Environment Agency Asep Kuswanto stated that the ITF Sunter project had not been halted. “But the Jakarta Provincial Government is currently more focused on processing waste into fuel or refuse-derived fuel (RDF),” he said on Wednesday, August 9.

Asep explained that the RDF plant project is best suited for processing waste in the capital. It is also much cheaper than the ITF Sunter project.

The Jakarta government has already allocated a budget of Rp577 billion in the 2023 Regional Budget for the construction of ITF Sunter. However, it turned out that the project requires a huge budget that needs to be set aside.

ANTARA

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