Cleaning up Code River for ecotourism

Ridlo Aryanto,The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Riding the rough currents of a river that meanders over mountains and through forests has become common for the more adventurous among us, but rafting along a river that runs through the middle of a city is quite a different and unique experience.

At least, Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X hopes tourists to the province, one of Java's cultural centers, will think so.

"The regional administration is currently working on a redesign concept to beautify the Code River," provincial secretary Bambang Susanto Priyohadi said.

Bambang was speaking during a workshop sponsored by the administration to discuss the prospects for ecotourism on the Code River.

The first challenge to opening up the river to ecotourists will be figuring out what to do about the thousands of houses crowding the banks of the Code -- from Gondolayu bridge to Keparakan Kidul subdistrict. And the most difficult challenge may be cleaning up the water of the river.

A water quality survey conducted in 1993 by a Gadjah Mada University researcher showed the Code River contained E. coli, a bacteria that causes diarrhea. The water of the river was also over the tolerable limit for a number of other pollutants, which is sure to deter tourists from splashing around in the river.

"There is a need to change the social behavior of the local community living along the riverbank, encourage them to take care of their environment and to stop using the river as a gigantic public toilet," said Toni Artyanto Daroko, a researcher at the university's Institute for Environment Management Control.

He said the cost of cleaning up the river for ecotourism could be covered if some of the remaining amount of the regional administration's 2001 budget, about Rp 155 billion, was used for the plan.

According to Bambang, the governor's idea is to allow tourists to enjoy the city's scenery while cruising along the river.

A special 7.5-kilometer section of the river would be turned into a tourist zone, stretching from the southern part of the ring road (north of Yogyakarta), passing under Sardjito bridge and Gondolayu bridge (in the city center), and then through areas of the city known for their unique architectural styles, he said.

The division of the river and the surrounding land into different zones, as proposed by the dean of Gadjah Mada University's School of Geography, Sudarmadji, would help ensure the river was not exploited beyond its capacity to support activity.

"We don't want the plan to redesign the river to disrupt the stream flowing down from Mount Merapi, which would harm the people who depend on the river for their lives. The northern zone can be used for rafting and fishing, the middle part for jogging tracks and the zone closer to the city center as handicraft villages. This way, we can distribute the environmental burden," said Sudarmadji.

He added, however, that the river's present water debit of 600 m3 per second in the dry season meant the river had to be dredged to allow rafting and boating.

Sudarmadji, whose doctorate dissertation dealt with the environmental management of the Code River, said that the river, before there was so much development along its banks, had more than 10 natural springs, apart from the stream coming from Mt. Merapi, providing an endless supply of water.

But construction by the armed forces in 1985, who were deployed to villages to help with rural development, reduced the width of the river from 50 meters to 12 meters. As a result, parts of Yogyakarta are regularly flooded during the rainy season because there is no longer anywhere for the water to go.

"The plan to reshape the Code River should not worsen the environment. Moreover, the flow of the Code River has a great impact on Yogyakarta's environment," Sudarmadji said.

The chairman of the Code Community Forum, Totok Pratopo, welcomed the plan "as long as no people living along the riverbank are evicted".

He added that some of the traditions of the Code residents, like the Mauludan and Saparan religious rituals, could attract tourists.

"We're ready to assure the cleanliness of the river and its surrounding environment," Totok said.

For the last five years, he said, residents living near the Code River who flushed their toilets into the river or built toilets over the river, had been required to demolish the toilets and built new public toilets, that could be managed by the whole community.

New houses along the river are also required to be built facing the river, so their toilets will not be flushed into the river, he added.

With this new plan for the river, more work to clean up the Code and its water, as well as dredging the river to allow for rafting, will have to be done.