Surabaya Landfill Fire Not Ordinary Incident, Says Environmental Group

A recent fire at Surabaya's Benowo landfill, which consumed 900 square meters of waste, is far from a routine incident, according to the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) East Java. The environmental group emphasized that the blaze, which occurred Sunday evening, underscores significant failures in the city's waste management system.

Walhi East Java stated that the Benowo landfill, a key component of a waste-to-energy project designed to process 1,000 to 1,600 tons of waste daily, is not equipped to handle the current volume. The organization pointed to the open dumping system, still in use despite being mandated against by Indonesia's Waste Management Law, as a major contributor to the problem. This system, they explained, produces flammable methane gas.

The group also drew parallels to a similar fire at the Pakusari landfill in Jember on July 4, 2026, suggesting a broader pattern of poor waste governance across East Java. They warned that these incidents heighten the risk of disasters, particularly in the context of climate change and heatwaves that can easily ignite accumulated waste.

Furthermore, Walhi argued that the presence of advanced waste-to-energy technology has not resolved the fundamental issues. The core problems, they asserted, remain the high volume of waste generated and the weak policies for waste reduction at the source. As long as the management paradigm focuses on disposal and burning, ecological disaster risks like fires will persist, they concluded.