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Citarum back in spotlight for ‘new ocean garbage’
The West Java administration has launched a massive cleanup operation to clear the Citarum of a floating pile of trash stretching at least 3 kilometers, with the acting governor vowing to deploy heavy equipment to speed up the process.
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Workers use wooden boats on June 12, 2024 to collect plastic waste from the surface of the Citarum River in Batujajar, West Bandung regency, West Java. The mass of garbage floating on the river stretched 3 kilometers long and 60 meters wide and was estimated to weigh more than 100 tonnes, according to data from the West Bandung Environment and Forestry Agency as of June 7. (Antara/Raisan Al Farisi)
T
he West Java administration has deployed a team of workers to clean up the Citarum River after a viral Instagram post by environmental activist group Pandawara showed a stretch of floating trash it called “new ocean garbage”.
Acting West Java governor Bey Triadi Machmudin inspected the site of the floating pile of trash in West Bandung’s Batujajar district on Wednesday, the day after Pandawara’s post, which has so far gained around 470,000 likes.
Local authorities estimated that the garbage spanned around 3 kilometers and weighed around 100 tonnes.
Bey pledged to remove all the trash within a week for transporting to the nearby Sarimukti Landfill (TPA) in Cipatat.
“We are moving quickly,” he said. “Because there is a lot of garbage, we will send more heavy equipment to speed up the dredging process.”
Read also: West Java court declares textile company guilty of polluting Citarum River
Bey also said massive stretch of garbage was the result of the local residents’ habitually throwing their household waste into the Citarum, adding that the shallowing of the river due to sedimentation had also contributed to the problem.
