Port sediment stops fishermen

Port sediment stops fishermen

CILACAP, Central Java: About 20,000 fishermen in Cilacap,
Central Java, are unable to travel out to sea to fish due to
mounting sediment downriver of the Kaliyasa that flows through
Sentolo Kawat port.

"About 1.5 kilometers of the river is very shallow and cannot
be navigated through due to the sediment. If the government does
not dredge it immediately, we'll have serious problems," one of
the fishermen, Sarjani, 40, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He said silt had been accumulating for the past five years and
there were no indications that the government was taking any
steps to solve the problem.

Due to the sediment, he said, fishermen in Cilacap could only
fish during the sea's flood tide, which happens only six days a
month. "We can usually go fishing every day," Sarjani said.

He added that fishermen in the area had threatened to go on
strike if the government did not tackle the problem soon.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Segara Anakan Conservation
Program, Soeprihono, said that the local administration had
proposed funds of Rp 36 billion (US$4.1 million) to dredge the
river mouth, but the council had yet to approve it. (45)