A towering mountain of trash suddenly gave way outside Indonesia’s capital, triggering a deadly garbage landslide that has already claimed at least five lives — and rescuers fear the death toll could still rise.
Emergency crews spent Monday digging through unstable piles of waste at the massive Bantargebang landfill, the primary dumping ground for the Jakarta metropolitan area. Authorities say heavy rain triggered the collapse Sunday afternoon, sending tons of garbage crashing down on workers, truck drivers, and vendors operating at the site.
Officials confirmed five people were killed when the garbage mound gave way around 2:30 p.m. local time in Bekasi, a densely populated city on the outskirts of Jakarta. At least four others remain missing beneath the debris.
More than 300 rescuers, including soldiers, police officers, and volunteers, have been deployed to the site. Teams are using excavators, drones, and search dogs to comb through the wreckage.
“It was raining heavily for hours, even beginning Saturday night,” said Desiana Kartika Bahari, head of Jakarta’s Search and Rescue Office. “The garbage mountain became unstable and suddenly collapsed.”
She warned that dangerous conditions are slowing the search.
“Our teams are working carefully because the waste piles are still shifting,” Bahari said. “We cannot rule out the possibility that more victims are trapped.”
According to officials, the victims included two garbage truck drivers and two food vendors who had been working near the landfill when the trash avalanche struck. Several scavengers and drivers were also believed to be in the area at the time.
Four people managed to escape moments before the collapse.
Rescue crews are now racing against time.
“We are still gathering data to determine how many workers and vehicles were caught in the slide,” Bahari said.
The disaster has reignited outrage over Jakarta’s long-running waste management failures.
Indonesia’s environment minister, Hanif Faisol Nurofiq, visited the site Monday and delivered a blunt warning.
“This landfill is only the tip of the iceberg,” Nurofiq said. “Jakarta’s waste problem has been ignored for decades. If we do not fix it, tragedies like this will continue.”
The Bantargebang landfill has become one of the largest open dumping sites in the world. It receives between 6,500 and 8,000 tons of garbage every single day from the Jakarta metro region, which is home to more than 30 million people.
Over nearly four decades, the site has accumulated roughly 55 million tons of trash.
In some areas, compressed waste towers more than 160 feet high — the height of a 15-story building.
“These mountains of garbage are extremely dangerous,” Nurofiq said. “They collapse, release toxic gases, and pollute nearby communities.”
The minister also criticized local authorities for continuing to rely on open dumping despite a national ban implemented in 2008.
“This incident should never have happened if the regulations had been followed,” he said. “Open dumping is illegal and unsafe.”
Investigators are now examining whether safety violations or negligence contributed to the deadly collapse.
Indonesia’s waste crisis has been growing rapidly as the country’s population and consumption increase. Experts warn many landfills nationwide are nearing capacity.
President Prabowo Subianto recently announced plans to invest $3.5 billion in 34 waste-to-energy plants designed to burn garbage and generate electricity. The government hopes the program will help reduce the country’s dependence on massive landfill sites.
Without major reforms, officials say many Indonesian landfills could be completely full by 2028.
The country has already seen the deadly consequences of landfill instability.
In 2005, a massive garbage landslide at the Leuwigajah landfill in West Java killed 143 people after heavy rain triggered a methane gas explosion.
Environmental groups say the latest disaster is a warning the government cannot ignore.
“People should not be dying because of garbage,” one Jakarta waste policy analyst told local media. “This tragedy shows the system is broken.”
As rescue crews continue digging through the trash outside Jakarta, families of the missing wait anxiously — hoping their loved ones will still be found alive beneath the mountain of waste.
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