Healthy environment

Healthy environment

I have been living in Indonesia for the past five months and
have traveled extensively from Aceh to Timor, and love it here.
There is such great beauty, friendly people, and diversity of
every kind.

However, there is some custom that badly spoils the beauty and
deserves serious attention -- that of using the rivers and
beaches as bathrooms/lavatories. Every morning as I walk along
the river or along the beach, people are squatting, putting raw
sewage into the waterways and fouling the beaches and riverbanks.
Just downstream from people defecating others are bathing
and washing their clothes. Perhaps this custom mattered less in
the past when people lived in villages and population densities
were lower; it is common knowledge that a river can cleanse
itself every 10 to 15 kilometers. However, when such behavior
occurs in the city or places with high population densities the
results are horrible and unhealthy.

Surely it would not be too difficult to change this
unfortunate habit. Education through schools, loudspeakers,
billboards, posted signs, television, radio, etc. could be
coupled with vigilance on the part of the police and the
military. If the authorities deployed their personnel for an hour
or two each morning at dawn, along the rivers and urban beaches
to give information, then warnings, and finally fines, I believe
the problem could be significantly reduced. It would make our
rivers and coasts cleaner and healthier.

Perhaps it would be possible to educate people too about the
need to stop throwing garbage into the rivers and sea, and
dropping litter whenever and wherever they like. Every tourist
area I have been to has been badly littered with plastic bags and
containers, etc., again spoiling the beauty. Again it didn't
matter so much in the past if people threw their garbage away
since banana leaves and peels, papaya skins etc. are
biodegradable, but now that waste products are made more of
plastic, tin, and chemicals, it is essential that these be
disposed of properly and not just thrown into the rivers, along
the street, etc. Surely education and the provision (and faithful
emptying) of convenient litter containers for plastic wrappers,
bottles, etc. would make our cities cleaner and more attractive
and also save on the cost of street sweepers.

I hope someone will take notice!

CHRISTINE DRAKE

Padang, West Sumatra