Teachers provided with knowledge on environment

TIMIKA: In a bid to help improve the teachers' awareness of the environment, a three-day workshop on environmental education was held starting Tuesday in Mimika for elementary and junior high school teachers.

Organized jointly by the Mimika regency administration and PT Freeport Indonesia's environment division, the workshop was designed to provide participants with knowledge on how to manage the environment.

"Through the workshop, we want to make the teachers understand how to recycle garbage, which so far has been the major environmental problem in Mimika," Zet Marrey, the head of the regency's environment agency, said.

There are many people in Mimika, he said, who still dump refuse in ditches.

He added that, as a result, garbage piled up along the ditches during the rainy season, creating both environmental and health problems. - JP