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10,000 tons of waste litters Pari Island
During the rainy season, up to 40,000 tons of garbage can be found in Thousand Island's waters,
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Thousand Islands Environment Agency workers clean up a beach on Pari Island on April 8 following an oil spill. (Via kompas.com/Suku Dinas Lingkungan Hidup Kepulauan Seribu)
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p to 10 cubic meters of waste weighing 10,000 tons, mostly comprising plastic and driftwood, was found littering the beaches on Pari Island in Thousand Islands regency on Tuesday.
“The trash piled up at around 2 p.m., but by around 4.30 p.m. we had cleaned it up,” Thousand Islands Environment Agency head Yusen Hardiman said on Tuesday, kompas.com reported.
He said the trash originated from Jakarta’s rivers and was carried by the ocean currents to Thousand Islands, including Pari Island, one of the nearest islets to the mainland.
He said it was normal for large amounts of garbage to be spotted during the rainy season, and that the composition of the waste remained the same, with 80 percent being plastic waste and driftwood.
“There were even eceng gondok [water hyacinths],” Yusen said.
He said that during the rainy season, up to 40,000 tons of garbage could be found in the regency’s waters, comprising 17,000 tons of domestic waste, 1,600 tons of waste from tourists and 21,000 tons of waste originating from the mainland.
Yusen added that the agency had stationed 13 large boats to clean up the waste. (ami)
