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