Household, chemical waste pollutes rivers

JAKARTA (JP): Unlike Venice that is renowned for its clean rivers, here we only see dirty rivers, some of which even give off a putrid stench.

All of the 13 rivers in the capital city are currently in an appalling condition. They are polluted by waste from households and factories, an environmental official said.

"You can see the river pollution just by looking at the color of its water," said Aboeprajitno Aboejuwono, the head of the city's environmental impact management agency (Bapedalda), referring to the dark, murky water of the rivers.

The river pollution is a result of a combination of both organic and chemical waste dumped into the rivers. The organic waste, or biodegradable waste is mostly from households, while chemical waste, or nonbiodegradable waste is contributed by factories.

Aboejuwono blamed household waste as the major cause of the organic pollution and industrial waste as the main cause of chemical pollution.

Each year some 14,000 cubic meters of household waste is dumped into the city's rivers. Only a part of it is carried out to the sea.

People living along the riversides contribute a large portion of the household waste. They use the rivers as though they were public garbage dumps or toilets.

Sumini, who lives by the Ciliwung river in Manggarai area, Central Jakarta, admitted that she and her neighbors used the river as a dumping site for their household waste.

"Dumping garbage into the river is free. Besides, it will be carried out to sea," she told The Jakarta Post, adding that there is no garbage dumping site in the neighborhood.

Sumini's neighbor, Albert, said that the people there usually threw their garbage on the riverbanks as well. "It's common here," he remarked.

However, the people in the neighborhood do not use the river for their daily needs such as for bathing or cooking as it is too dirty.

Meanwhile, data shows that the waste from industrial companies contributes up to 90 percent of river pollution in Jakarta. The factories dump more than 900,000 cubic meters of waste into the rivers each year.

Most of the factories still dump their industrial waste directly into the rivers without processing it first, while some others possess waste recycling facilities.

Bapedalda has instructed that all factories must be equipped with their own waste processing plant. But only big factories can afford to buy such equipment since it is relatively expensive, Aboejuwono said.

He noted that the city administration has taken strict action against some factories which failed to manage their chemical waste. He cited an example of a company named Trebor, whose operation permit was suspended in 1995 due to its violation of the waste regulation. The following year, after it had complied with the requirements, the government allowed the company to resume operation.

He said that to solve the city's river pollution problem, Bapedalda has developed the Clean River Program (Prokasih) since the early 1990s.

Free

Aboejuwono claimed that several rivers are now free of household garbage, not due to increasing public environmental awareness, but because the authorities and also scavengers, managed to clear the waste. But he admitted his office still faced difficulties in cleaning up chemical waste from the rivers.

"This is a long term program; the results are not instant," he remarked.

Aboejuwono said that Bapedalda monitored liquid waste from the factories regularly by checking their waste processing equipment each year.

He confessed that it was more difficult to ask residents not to dump their household waste into the rivers or on the riverbanks.

"It is not easy to change people's habits," he concluded.

But he said his office would continue to pursue such efforts. Currently, the agency is formulating a regulation requiring all people living alongside the rivers to build their houses facing the rivers. (04)