UK News
‘Pacific ashtray’: Australian billionaire’s plan to ship and burn waste in Fiji condemned by villagers | Fiji
An Australian billionaire’s plan to burn rubbish for energy in Fiji amounts to “waste colonialism” and risks spoiling a “beach paradise”, villagers and the Pacific country’s UN ambassador have said.
Traditional landowner Inoke Tora boarded a bus to the capital, Suva, on Tuesday with a petition from villagers opposing the $630m waste-to-energy incinerator, which is forecast to consume 900,000 tonnes of non-recyclable rubbish each year.
The fashion entrepreneur behind the Paris-born Kookai label and an Australian billionaire who made his fortune in rubbish disposal want to build a port and waste incinerator within 15km (9 miles) of Fiji’s tourism gateway Nadi.
The Australian-based duo of Ian Malouf and Rob Cromb have told Fiji’s government the project could meet 40% of the small country’s electricity needs, cutting its reliance on diesel.
However, an environmental impact statement lodged by their company TNG shows it would also raise Fiji’s national emissions by 25%.
Residents say the emissions will spoil Fiji’s eco-tourism reputation and pose a safety risk with hotels and schools nearby.
“There are hundreds of people living in villages in this place and they fish each day, eat fresh crabs. They call that beach paradise,” Tora told AFP by telephone on his way to petition Fiji’s prime minister.
“The government should stop this.”
Fiji’s ambassador to the UN, Filipo Tarakinikini, wrote on social media on Monday that the Vuda coast north of Nadi “must not become the Pacific’s ashtray”.
Ash residue and dioxins would contaminate the food chain, Tarakinikini warned, likening the plan to send up to 700,000 tonnes of non-recyclable rubbish to Fiji each year to “waste colonialism”.
“Dial-a-Dump” founder Malouf spent seven years trying to get a similar waste-to-energy incinerator approved in Sydney before it was rejected as a risk to human health in 2018, planning and court documents show.
Stephen Bali, then mayor of Blacktown in Sydney, who led opposition to the project in his suburb, urged Fiji to seek independent scientific data.
“Gathering up rubbish from Australia, driving it in a diesel truck to port, putting it on a diesel ship to Fiji to be offloaded – it would be interesting to look at those emissions,” Bali, now a lawmaker in the New South Wales state parliament, told AFP.
“We need to deal with our own waste,” he said.
Malouf did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
His business partner Cromb, who bought the Paris fashion label Kookai in 2017, said he maintains business links to Fiji, where he was born, because Kookai manufactures clothes there.
Cromb has held community meetings with villagers as the incinerator proposal spurs a backlash.
“There are genuine concerns around environmental safety, transparency, and the scale of the proposal and those concerns are valid and are being taken seriously,” Cromb said in a statement.
Energy-from-waste systems “are widely used in jurisdictions with some of the world’s highest environmental protections”, he said.
“By diverting waste from landfill where it would otherwise produce methane, a significantly more potent greenhouse gas and reducing reliance on fossil fuel-based energy sources, energy-from-waste can contribute to broader lifecycle emissions benefits,” he said.
The project would manage waste generated in Fiji, reduce landfill and support the country’s energy needs, he said.
“It is not a project intended to import waste from overseas,” he said.
However, the plan for a port and incinerator lodged with Fiji’s government showed it would feed in local waste as well as waste shipped from Australia and across the region.
Opponents have told the government it would be a breach of a 1998 convention signed by Australia to ship hazardous waste to a Pacific island country.
Fiji’s tourism minister Vilame Gavoka said tourism across Nadi could be jeopardised by the incinerator.
“Such facilities in other countries are located away from businesses and densely populated areas,” his office said.
And Fiji’s permanent secretary for environment and climate change, Michael Sivendra, told AFP the project is under review.
Resident Eremasi Matanatabu, a food company manager, said concern over building a waste business in the bay where the first Fijians arrived to shore is widespread.
“It will stick out like a big sore thumb,” he said.
“Very cross… very sad,” is how David sums up his feelings. For him, the club (where monthly fees for a full seven day membership were around £130), was “very much a community-based” place, and its closure has left many locals having “lost a friendship group”. A former county planner in Oxfordshire, he argues: “Planning and health are inextricably linked. People need to exercise, they need to have somewhere to walk, go, play, commune. Mental health and physical health are exceedingly undervalued at the moment by planning.”
A cross-party report has called for safer conditions for the record number of families living in temporary accommodation.
Source link
In December, the United Nations officially designated Jakarta the world’s largest city, hosting a staggering 42 million inhabitants. Michael Neilson speaks to several people who call the ‘big durian’ home – about the positives and the negatives – and how community and the city’s infamously dry humour get them through.
4am
Few things are more synonymous with Jakarta than the bright green jackets worn by the sprawling megacity’s more than a million ojek, or motorcycle taxi, drivers.
Like tens of millions in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, ojek driver Dicky Rio Suprapto, 48, wakes at 4am to pray. After dropping his two teenagers at school, he begins a 12-hour day navigating one of the world’s most congested cities.
Suprapto trained as an engineer, but has been out of formal work since 2017. After Covid-19, he turned to ojek driving, using ride-sharing apps.
In a city infamous for its deadlock traffic, Suprapto says he has to be creative. Rather than relying on maps, he draws upon his decades of knowledge of the city’s labyrinthine streets.
“I have already memorised it,” he says, “So it’s a shorter time.”
Utilising his knowledge of narrow alleyways, he transports people, food and packages through the city’s capillaries.
“[The customers] use our services, they want to [work to] earn money. That’s why I have the obligation to help the city, to make sure they reach their destination fast.”
Despite the grind, pollution, and relentless macet (traffic), humour persists. After surviving brain surgery, he jokes about the tube in his head.
“I have a tube … so I am like ‘Robocop’, you know.”
He stops work at sunset due to light sensitivity, earning Rp400,000–500,000 a day (US$23-$29), which he says is “more than enough” to support his family, provided they live simply.
“Enjoy while you have it,” he says.
10am
Dhewa Radya, 22, represents a different Jakarta: young, highly educated, and plugged into the city’s burgeoning tech sector.
He works in artificial intelligence and structures his life around avoiding the worst of the city’s congestion. Unlike many, he walks to work from his kost, or shared living space, in West Jakarta, which costs Rp1.6million ($92) a month to rent.
The pollution, however, is unavoidable. After a year, a check-up showed lung spots typical of passive smokers.
Jakarta is not his “favourite city,” he admits, but the best place to find work.
“In Jakarta, you can find everything … so it’s really good for [an] early career.”
Originally from Central Java, Radya is one of millions who move to Jakarta each year seeking better opportunities. He counts himself lucky, with youth unemployment about 17%, including many university graduates.
Longer term, he wants to go abroad, then return.
“The hope is I can go back to Indonesia, have a good impact, and also have better jobs, better life, better living quality.”
He is concerned about growing inequality, and – like many young Indonesians – isn’t shy to speak about politics, and apply a humorous Jakarta lens to current affairs.
“Even though the government screws us every day, the thing that we can only do is just to enjoy it,” he says, “No matter how hard it is, just go with it.”
1pm
By lunchtime, the city shifts again.
Neneng Muslimah, 45, runs a riverside family warteg, or traditional eatery, in the central business district of Kuningan, feeding office workers through a system born of necessity – and ingenuity.
The river highlights Jakarta’s evolution, and increasingly stark divide: crowded kampungs (villages) on one side, and five-star hotels and glass office towers on the other.
Her warteg’s most distinctive feature is a pulley system used to deliver food across a gap left when a bridge was removed.
Starting work at 5am, the rush hits at noon.
“At 12pm, we get through about 100 portions,” she says.
Traditional meals – fried chicken with pungent sambal, rice, vegetable, and egg dishes – cost as little as Rp10,000 ($0.60).
Orders are shouted across the river – or sent via WhatsApp – and often paid using smartphone scanners attached to the basket.
“We prefer WhatsApp. If you shout, sometimes the order is wrong – our voices get carried away by the wind,” she says, adding that mistakes are sometimes part of the fun.
“Sometimes when we mishear an order, we just laugh. They might ask for coffee, and we deliver an iced drink.”
Despite rising living costs and the constant risk of flooding – driven by the city’s subsidence and heavier rains – Neneng says Jakarta has its own special beauty.
“People from outside only know Jakarta for the traffic jams, the dirt, and the pollution … But once you’ve been here and felt it, then it becomes comfortable.
“The people are so friendly, so supportive. It is beautiful.”
6pm
As the day cools, the traffic returns.
At a busy intersection near the national monument – Monas – Faqih Ibnu Ali, 28, paints himself silver and steps into the road.
He is one of Jakarta’s street performing “manusia silver”, or “silvermen” – one of the city’s millions of informal workers.
On a good day he earns about Rp200,000 ($11).
He works the morning rush hour and, after a short rest, from the afternoon until sometimes midnight.
Behind the metallic paint is a harder story.
A former fisher, he says he lost everything when his ship burned down. He now lives under a bridge with his wife and children. Years ago, he lost a son in a traffic accident.
“It feels sad,” he says, “But that’s life on the street, brother.”
He says he feels judged and like an outsider, left behind in the world’s largest city.
“If people look at me, it’s with one eye.”
His workplace reflects Jakarta’s growing inequality, as he weaves between air-conditioned SUVs and motorbike riders choking on exhaust fumes.
Phones are hidden when he approaches.
“People are afraid they’ll be taken. It’s like I am not considered.”
And yet, he keeps going – for his children.
“We shouldn’t lose hope, don’t give up, it’s for the sake of the family.”
-
Crime & Safety3 days agoBicester man denies sexually assaulting two young girls
-
UK News2 days agoStarmer says it ‘beggars belief’ he wasn’t told about Mandelson vetting failure as he faces Commons – UK politics live | Politics
-
Crime & Safety1 week agoLorry overturns on Oxfordshire A43 roundabout with driver trapped
-
Oxford News4 weeks agoOxfordshire village fear for welfare incident update issued
-
Oxford News4 weeks agoDrug driving arrest carried out in Oxfordshire market town
-
Business & Technology4 weeks agoFirst Indie Oxford Day kicks off with great success
-
UK News2 days agoPhones to be banned in schools by law in England under government plans
-
Crime & Safety1 week agoOxford teacher who fiddled grades wants banning order ended