TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Ministry to create team to remove trash from Mt. Rinjani
Change Size
Named a national geopark in 2013, Mount Rinjani has attracted many tourists since the 1990s thanks to the breathtaking view of the crescent-shaped lake in its caldera known as Segara Anak. (Shutterstock/-)
T
he Environment and Forestry Ministry, the West Nusa Tenggara administration and the Mount Rinjani National Park Agency are creating a team to handle piles of trash scattered on Mt. Rinjani, an active volcano on Lombok Island, which is famous for its beauty as well as notorious for the garbage left behind by climbers and porters.
“Next year the ministry will step in and help West Nusa Tenggara administration to clean Rinjani because Rinjani is an important tourism destination. We are starting with a small team led by West Nusa Tenggara Forestry Agency,” R. Sudirman, the director of waste management at the ministry, said on Wednesday after a coordination meeting with officials from West Nusa Tenggara administration, North Lombok and East Lombok administrations and the management of Mt. Rinjani National Park.
Sudirman said that to solve the trash problem on Rinjani the government needed swift and continuous action. He said the action taken by the provincial administration was “too late and a bit slow.”
He said the ministry expected that by 2017 Mt. Rinjani would be clean.
An official with the national park management, Mustafa Imran Lubis, said from April to September this year, they had removed 8 tons of garbage from Mt. Rinjani. He said the garbage was concentrated mostly at resting posts.
“The trash is left by climbers, porters and guides ascending Rinjani but they don’t bother to take it down with them,” he said. (evi)
