Students clean up river to mark children's day

Dozens of students from seven elementary and four junior high schools in Bogor cleaned up the shores of the Ciliwung river to mark National Children's Day, which fell on Thursday.

Ratnasari, director of the organization Rimbawan Muda Indonesia, an environmental NGO, said the event was aimed at raising awareness of the importance of river ecosystems among students.

"We also invited the students to give presentations on their assessment of the condition the rivers in their neighborhoods," Ratnasari said.

The event was held in collaboration with Terres des Homes, an international children's rights foundation.

Thursday's event included a garbage can decorating contest - the cans will be donated to the community.

"Through this campaign, we want to remind residents living along the riverbanks not to dispose of their trash into the river," she said.

The mounds of garbage that flow into the city from upstream rivers have long concerned Jakartans. The city's waterways are clogged with trash and their black water smells foul.

The poor condition of the city's drainage systems means the capital floods every year. The latest worst flood was in 2002, when two-thirds of the city was submerged, sending more than 200,000 residents to shelters.

Dinar Nurhalifah, a seventh grader at SMP Muhammadiyah 1 Nanggung, said that Cikaniki river, a tributary of the Cisadane, had a putrid smell and was heavily polluted with hazardous chemicals.

"There are illegal gold miners who dump the chemicals they use into the river."