An end to this blog

Now that the assignment is done, I will not be continuing on this blog. Thank you everyone who has read and commented on this blog.

The hot stuff right now is..

I was reading the Jakarta Post today, and I stumbled upon an article that I thought I should share with my blog readers.. The title of the article: Green activists challenge candidates. If you haven’t already known, Indonesia is currently having presidential election. And the green activists demand the next elected government to concretely act on environmental issues rather than merely promising to create policies or joining another international environmental agreements.

And to my surprise, the article also mentioned that Indonesia has been recorded in the Guiness World Records as the country with the highest deforestation rate, which led to “recurring natural disaster from floods to landslides and air and water pollution across the nation” (Jakarta Post, 2009). I know we have so much deforestation, but I wouldn’t guess it’s highest in the world. And now I know, we are in dire need of better environmental policies.

If I were to do something..

Hmm.. This is the hardest part of the blog. But I’ve been thinking about this for two weeks, and what I’d really like to do is to house the people who has been living in the slums by the river at a different location. I’ve been thinking, if we could build a government funded housing, somewhere else in the city, moving them away from the riverbanks.

I understand that the government has been trying to move these people away, through transmigration programs. Since I was in the elementary school, we were taught about transmigration program. The definition: a program to reduce the population, especially in Java, by migrating people to another islands of Indonesia, where there are more abundant land and resources. And my understanding is, people who participate in the program will be given some funds to start their lives in the new dwellings. However, as I grew up, I have found out that the program has not been successful at all. Many people chose to come to Java, especially Jakarta, chasing the “dream” of earning a better living. And these people weren’t fond of the idea of being migrated somewhere else. And there are conflicting issues for the people who agreed to participate in the program. Some have been living better lives. But I have also heard about conflicts between migrants and the natives of the islands.

So I thought, transmigration didn’t work. That’s why I came up with the idea of building a free housing to accomodate the poor, and to move them away from the riverbanks. I know that they were not the only cause of the water pollution, but having them moved away may make it easier for the clean-up programs too. With less “clutter” by the riverbanks, clean-up programs can be done faster and hopefully cheaper.

One more thing, factories must, and I said MUST have their own recycling facilities. If I could, I will make a regulation so that factories aren’t allowed to be built or even to run their operations without having the proper waste management facilities. Because Jakarta and the island of Java are running out of land and space, dumpsites are getting overloaded too. And it is impossible to build or even open up anymore dumpsites than there already are. So I’m thinking, instead of migrating people to another islands, we can migrate waste to another islands, as long as they are properly maintained.

There they are. Things that I came up with. Any thoughts? Opinions?

$500million for Citarum

Here’s a little documentary on Citarum:

Citarum has become so polluted that Indonesia needed to take a $500 million loan, from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to fund a clean-up program. Isn’t it great? The predicted outcomes include “provision of irrigation for 25,000 hectares of farmland and additional clean water supply for 200,000 households in Jakarta” (Jakarta Post, 2008). The loan will also be used to reforest some areas to prevent floods.

Although there are concerns on how well the fund is going to be allocated, but I’m positive that the clean-up project is going to work for Citarum. If we were able to get Citarum properly cleaned, it will not only improve the environment but also the quality of life of many poor Indonesians. I am also hoping that government will improve the regulations on water use and enforce them more strictly. More importantly, provide education, for everyone, on the importance of recycling and proper waste management. I mean, if we finally had clean rivers, but people still didn’t realize of how important they are, wouldn’t it be useless to clean them in the first place? People will still dump their waste in the rivers, as well as farmers, factories, and everyone else.

Yay to another clean-up

Last week, on World Environment Day, which fell on June 5th, another clean-up was done in Ciliwung. And the good news is, no unaffordable technologies involved. Sanggar Ciliwung Merdeka, a non-profit organization, lead hundreds of Jakartans to clean six parts of the river, from the upstream to the downstream.
The organization, consists of youths and people from the communities around Ciliwung as members, was founded in 2000 and has been actively facilitating trash and recycling programs in the community.

In 2007, the group managed to build a community clinic as well as water sanitation facility for the riverbank residents.
In 2008, they built a 200 square meter composting house, which allow the residents to compose their organic waste and sell them for extra income. The organization also managed a community bazaar to raise awareness about the slums and allowed them to improve their living conditions.

Last week’s clean-up, was organized along with other non-profit organizations, yielded 50 kgs of organic waste and 200 kgs of dry waste. The organic waste collected could be traded for several kilograms of rice. This is what I think is an effective clean-up program. Not only it motivates residents to help keep the river clean, it also gives them incentive for keeping it clean. Thumbs up for Sanggar Ciliwung Merdeka.

Ready, set, ACTION?

Apparently, the pollution of Ciliwung started way back in mid 1700s, when hospitals from Jakarta began to dump their waste into the river. Not only the water became polluted,  That’s over three centuries of pollution! No wonder the river has become so filthy. Like I said before, if I were asked what to do, where would I begin?
Good news is, as the world evolves and there’s a growing concern about the environment, people starting to care. Maybe people has always been concerned, but like me, they don’t know what to do or where to start. Lucky for us, there are enough people that cares about our beloved Ciliwung, no matter how filthy it has become. And they are doing something about it.

Here’s one solution: voluntary clean-up program. PII (The Institution of Engineers Indonesia), currently a 57-year-old organization, sponsored the “Clean Up Ciliwung” program back in 2006. Their goal was not to clean up the whole river in a day, but to raise awareness in the community to improve our environment. Volunteers were also taught how to recycle organic waste into energy, with a biogas machine. In addition, they were also shown “the technology that could filter opaque river flows into sanitized drinking water” (Jakarta Post, 2006). The referred article also mentioned that composters and water purifiers could be bought through PII or local universities. Here’s where my question kicked in.

How can those people afford the so-called machines if they can hardly afford to survive day-to-day living? The article mentioned that composters can be bought for Rp. 100,000 (about 11 CAD) and water purifiers are sold between Rp. 950,000 – Rp. 1,500,000 (equivalent of 105CAD – 165CAD). How much do you think these people earn a day? Most people who lives by the riverbanks earn a living from scavenging the garbage in the river for recyclables. How much do you think they make in a day? If they were lucky, they can make Rp. 15,000 – Rp. 20,000 a day, that’s about 1.65CAD – 2.20CAD. The average income for garbage scavengers is about Rp. 60,000 a month or 6.60CAD. You see what I mean? Yes, clean water is important and yes, recycling is important. But when you only earn that much, and you have to support a family, would you care about getting clean water, let alone recycling.

The above video was a little bit off topic, but I want to show you what it looks like to live by the riverbanks, and how they scavenge garbage for a living. My point is, the clean-up program may help to improve their living condition a little, but if they had to pay so much to maintain that condition, how could they afford it? That means, after the clean-up, these people won’t be able to afford to keep it clean anyway. Recycling is too expensive, while the river is just right at their door, where they can just throw their garbage away, and it goes on and on again. The big question is: is it going to end?

What would you do?

If someone asked you to come up with an idea to reduce water pollution in Indonesia, particularly Jakarta, what would you suggest. To be honest, everytime I think of something, I ended up with more questions and problems. So give me your ideas, suggestions, inputs, anything!

A little about agricultural waste

As I’ve promised, I am going to discuss a little bit about agricultural waste that also contributes to water pollution. And since this blog is all about water pollution in Indonesia, I am going to discuss about how agricultural waste in Indonesia has polluted the rivers. Here I go..

Historically, Indonesia has been one of the biggest producers of agricultural products in Asia. By 209, agricultural products accounted for 14.4% of Indonesian GDP with rice as its main produce. In the mid 1980s, Indonesian government has recognized the intensive use of pesticides on Indonesia’s rice production. According to The World Bank study, not only it has caused “the pests to develop resistance to the pesticides but also reduced the effectiveness of natural controls”. Though government has banned the use of some pesticides in 1986, however millions of farmers in Indonesia still use them imposing health threats to their health, livestock and the surrounding environment.

While researching for this post I wonder, how do pesticides pollute our water? Don’t they go into the soil? Even worse, they go into our crops, which then we eat. Let’s look at the island of Java, where the rivers of Ciliwung and Citarum flow. Agricultural waste has played its part in polluting both rivers, especially Citarum. Due to rapid increase in population, Java is running out of land and space, fast. The remaining available land that was designated for forest reserves has been slowly decreasing due to its use for cash cropping for vegetables such as carrots, cabbage and spring onions. Illegal cash cropping is also a common practice that took up forestland areas in the upper Citarum. Along with this practice comes the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Not only cash cropping, the upperside of Citarum is also filled with tea plantation, that has been there for as long as I can remember.

The lack of forestland then lead to floods due to heavy rainfalls during the monsoon seasons in Indonesia. Pesticides from the soil and the land surfaces were washed away into the rivers, causing them to pollute the rivers. Now imagine when 15.8% of the upper Citarum area was taken up for cash cropping. And the number only went up since 2005. According to a study by FAO, pollutants such as pesticides and insecticides may cause “cancer, pulmonary and haematological morbidity and immune system deficiencies”.

Another problem: dairy cattle farming. This is also a common practice for residents of the riverbanks. And of course, where else would the cattle dung be wasted if not into the river? Don’t forget all domestic waste including the waste from “the latrines of more than half of the households that were built along the riverbanks” (Environmental Sciences, 2005). The pollutants from such waste including E. coli bacteria and coliform, which will cause diarrhea, nausea and other gastrointestinal diseases.

With so much problems going on, I wonder, how are we going to end this? Where should we start?

Reference: http://122.249.91.209/myukk/free_journal/Download.php?fn=ES587_full.pdf

Let’s see some examples, shall we?

I’m on a roll. Though my blogging skill hasn’t really gotten better, but I’m trying to continue this mission.
Anyway, let’s get back on track. Water pollution in Indonesia. What happened to our waters that the rivers got so nasty and smelly and really, nothing beautiful or useful about them? Oh, wait, they are still useful, for the poor people who lives by the river banks.
Look at the image above. Would you ever, brush your teeth with that brown water? Or even cook? Or even wash your clothes or your utensils? With that pile of garbage right across you?
Unfortunately for them, they have nowhere else to live. And unfortunately for them, they have no other sources for water. Let alone clean water.

Growing up in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, the above image is so familiar to me. It was taken at Ciliwung river, the main river that flows through Jakarta. I remember every time I drove by there, having to breathe its putrid smell, I saw kids swimming in the shallow end of the river, women washing their clothes and cooking by the river and some men fishing in the river. You see where I’m going here?

Here’s another image: a complex of houses, usually built with the combination of cheap plywood and cardboards, on the banks of Ciliwung. Not only these people use the river for everyday needs, they also conveniently throw their garbage into it. And it doesn’t seem to bother them at all. So, does poverty have something to do with water pollution? Or maybe, poverty has worsen the polluting of Ciliwung?

I’ve always been confused and surprised. Maybe the right word is perplexed, by the facts that these people can survive in that condition. An article from The Jakarta Post, stated that “waterborne diseases such as diarrhea claims over 100,000 lives of children every year”.

Other problems such as E. coli infection and parasitic infections are very common for these people. How could they not? They bathe, they brush their teeth, they cook and they defecate in the very river. As if their lives not hard enough, they then have to cope with the costs of health services. Though most of the times, more lives were lost because they simply can’t afford health services.  And not only diseases, they also have to deal with threats of flooding. Well, no surprise there. With that much garbage in one river, times with the number of rivers that flow through Jakarta, floods are just ‘some expected visitors’ during the rainy season. And more lives were gone due to floods.

Here’s another gruesome image: 
Yes, that’s a pile of garbage on a river. It’s an image of Citarum river, another major river that flows near Jakarta. According to many websites, sources and bloggers, Citarum has been named as the world’s most polluted river.

What  happened to it, you wonder? “Nine million people throw their trash in a river, and corporations use it to dump hazardous waste”. It sounds awfully familiar now, doesn’t it?

Due to rapid industrialization in the 1980s, hundreds of  factories were built along the riverbank. And many of them conveniently dump their waste into Citarum. The water is now thick from the chemicals, almost as solid as the ground. Plus the nine million residents of the surrounding area, whose waste were also conveniently dumped into the river. Disturbing isn’t it?

Whose problem is it?

So here I go again.. I’m not a writer, let alone a blogger. I’ve been trying write this blog for days, I got stuck. I ended up spending my days researching for the topic I’m writing about, because it is actually harder than I thought it would be. I started with 3 sentences, deleting them, writing another three, deleting them again. Over and over again. No surprise here, I guess..

Remember the brown, putrid water I told you about? I wonder why nothing had ever been done. Or was there something done that I probably didn’t know about? Who is actually responsible for all the mess? Who is responsible for regulating the industries not to dump their waste in our rivers?
When I typed in “water, regulations, Indonesia” on google, I found an interesting website as one of the search results. It lays out regulations on water resources, water rights and the laws on water exploitation, including, I quote “state’s duties in regard to the right to water”. And one of the state’s duties is to “protect the citizens’ human rights to water”.
A great website I thought. So there are actually regulations, including the one that protects our access to water.

I was once taught, where there is right, there is responsibility. Here’s where the issue rises. If we had rights to water, then we are responsible for taking care of it. And if everyone was responsible, will we not have clean rivers, doesn’t matter whether you are rich or poor? As I’ve stated in my previous post, over 50% households in Indonesia dump their wastes in the rivers. That’s not an act of responsibility. That’s an abuse of our rights. So there you go. Water pollution is a part of our problems as human beings.

Then there are others. Industries, farmers, fishermen, you name them. Any humanly possible activities, that involve water, may cause pollution. Industries dumping their waste in the water. Chemical fertilizers containing nitrates and phosphates pollute water. Fish farming and fishing with explosives cause water pollution. And these happen here, in Indonesia. And I’m pretty sure they happen everywhere else too. And everyone involves in these activities are responsible for the water they use. Regulations need to be enforced. Farmers and fishermen need to be educated more.