Kupastuntas.co, West Lampung - The West Lampung Regency Government through the Environment Agency has recorded 15 tons of waste production in West Lampung per day. Lack of public awareness not to litter is an obstacle in the field.

The Head of the West Lampung Environment Agency, M Henri Faisal through the Head of the Cleanliness Division, Ardiyansah Fikri, said that there are several areas in the local regency which are the locations most prone to being used as illegal waste dumps.

There are several points in the Balik Bukit sub-district, such as in Pekon or the villages of Sedampah, Sebarus, Seranggas and several other points, then the Batu Brak sub-district on the Canggu-Kotabesi border and the Belalau sub-district in Kenali Pekon, as well as at a number of provincial road points.

Fikri revealed that currently the Environment Agency has 15 fleets of waste carriers consisting of 3 units of dump trucks, 4 units of amrol and 8 units of bumpers. All of these fleets are still actively operating to transport waste in Balik Bukit District.

This is because the waste problems in the other 14 sub-districts are basically the responsibility of the sub-district and village governments, but if necessary the Environmental Service is ready to help with waste problems in each sub-district.

"Actually, there is still a shortage of garbage collection fleets, because ideally each sub-district has at least 1 unit of dump truck type garbage collection fleet to cover their respective areas," said Fikri when met at his office, Monday, January 16, 2023.

His party, every year always proposes the addition of a fleet of waste carriers. However, due to budget constraints, this proposal could not be realized, so currently the Lambar Regency Government can only maximize the number of existing fleets.

As for the cleaning staff, Fikri said, currently there are 129 people consisting of truck drivers, bump drivers, sweepers, and garbage collectors to dump trucks. The number of cleaning staff is sufficient to cover the Balik Bukit District area.

The production of waste which reaches 15 tons per day is indeed a serious problem, but public awareness not to litter is still very minimal so that the waste production in Bumi Beguai Jejama Sai Betik continues to increase.

The environmental service, West Lampung, said that they routinely carry out outreach to the public with various media such as posters, billboards and even other social media, but this has not had a significant effect on increasing public awareness.

"In fact, every year we routinely send letters to the District to be conveyed to the Pekon level so that household waste can be managed and not disposed of carelessly, so self-awareness is needed first to start a clean and healthy lifestyle," said Fikri.

Fikri said, this year he has allocated a budget of 1.8 billion rupiah to deal with the waste problem in the Conservation District, this budget is allocated for the salaries of cleaners and other operational and administrative costs. (*)