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Jakarta Post

As water gets murkier, Jakarta needs to clean bay

Bay of waste: The Jakarta administration faces a challenge to clean the heavily polluted Jakarta Bay due to a high volume of waste, particularly plastic waste, which flows from rivers into the bay

Fachrul Sidiq (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, March 9, 2018

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As water gets murkier, Jakarta needs to clean bay

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span class="inline inline-center">Bay of waste: The Jakarta administration faces a challenge to clean the heavily polluted Jakarta Bay due to a high volume of waste, particularly plastic waste, which flows from rivers into the bay.(JP/Arya Dipa)

The Jakarta administration has been called on to take action against heaps of plastic waste flowing into the Jakarta Bay every day and threatening the marine ecosystem in the regency of Thousand Islands.

The regency, which is popular for underwater tourism but less developed than the rest of the capital in terms of waste management, is the final destination of large quantities of waste flowing in from the Greater Jakarta area through 13 rivers.

Plastic waste, apart from polluting the sea, also endangers underwater natural habitats.

The marine ecosystem in the area is constantly under threat amid alarming levels of plastic waste. According to the Jakarta administration, nearly 30 percent of the waste produced in the city is plastic, large amounts of which flow into the bay in untreated form.

According to the regency administration, 8 to 20 tons of waste pile up in the area daily, an accumulation of waste sent from upstream areas of Greater Jakarta, home to some 30 millions residents, as well as produced by residents of the regency.

It is feared that, without concrete action to solve the problem, the amount of plastic waste in the sea will surpass that of fish in the next few decades.

“Waste in the Jakarta Bay has been a problem for a long time. However, there has been no breakthrough in solving it, while the waste continues to increase every second,” Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation (Kehati) executive director MS Sembiring said on Thursday during a discussion on the Jakarta Bay waste problem.

Swietenia Puspa Lestari, the founder of Divers Clean Action Indonesia, said the underwater environment was now heavily polluted, far worse than when she had begun diving in 2006.

“It’s not difficult to find waste. During a 30-minute clean-up, we found 936 plastic straws in an area of just 100 square meters,” she said.

Jakarta Environment Agency head Isnawa Adji said the figure was higher than seven years ago, when plastic only accounted for 14 percent of the city’s total waste.

He said the agency was working on a mechanism to limit the use of plastic in the city, which was expected to take effect in the near future and would be able to reduce plastic waste prior to the commencement of the Asian Games in August, when Jakarta, along with Palembang in South Sumatra, will host the quadrennial multisport event.

Jakarta is looking to use that opportunity to show off its tourism potential to visitors from participating nations.

“During a meeting with the governor, I have proposed a policy to limit the use of plastic to reduce plastic bottles and packaging at traditional markets and convenience stores,” he said.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno said the administration was paying close attention to the waste problem as well as to overall conditions in the regency. He said his decision to visit the island once a month was to ensure he could closely watch the development of the area.

Kehati’s coastal and small islands ecosystem program manager, Basuki Rahmad, said the administration needed to tackle plastic use by providing a more environment-friendly substance.

He suggested the administration look into the use of bamboo-made food containers to replace styrofoam, a plastic substance that takes 450 years to decompose.

“The government could apply a reward mechanism to retailers of food chain restaurants that are willing to become more environmental friendly. That’s more efficient, because [the government] will not have to spend much money on tackling waste problems,” he said, adding that planting more bamboo would also create more water catchment areas to mitigate the city’s flooding problem.

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