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)