Jakarta – Jakarta municipal authorities are complaining that the daily anti- and pro-government protests in the Indonesian capital are causing a strain – on their garbage collectors.

The thousands of protesters who staged daily sit-ins at the Indonesian parliament complex this week left behind some 60 cubic metres of garbage a day, the Kompas daily said.

The head of Central Jakarta's cleaning office, Mr Nana Suhena, said his office was having a hard time coping with all the extra garbage.

"Even though on average we deploy some 40 cleaners at each protest location, and even 60 personnel at the parliament complex, the handling of waste can still not be effective," he said. "We have to work from morning to the next morning and manage our limited number of sweepers."

On a normal day, the city's cleaning office already has difficulty coping with the 5,200 cubic metres of garbage that Jakarta's 11 million people generate daily.