Rafting body chief gives priority to safety

By Primastuti Handayani and Riyadi

JAKARTA (JP): After having an accident in 1988 she quit whitewater rafting for three years. But now she heads the newly- established Indonesian Whitewater Rafting Federation.

"I got into an accident the first time I rafted; my marine raft broke into two after hitting a large rock," said 29-year-old Amalia Yunita. But that was eight years ago, when rafting was new here.

She started up again in 1991, when her university friends on the Aranyacala female rafting team asked her to join the team's rafting expedition in Alas River, Aceh. Since then, rafting has become one of her favorite activities, besides cave exploring, rock climbing and mountain climbing.

Together with her fiancee Lody R. Korua and some of her friends, Yunita -- who was then a civil engineer -- established a commercial rafting firm, PT Lintas Jeram Nusantara, in September 1995. It is popularly known as Arus Liar.

Arus Liar operates rafting rides on the Citarik River in West Java, where it competes with its sister company, Buaya Jeram Sungai. When a rafting federation was formed in March this year by 38 professional and amateur rafting associations, Yunita was appointed chairwoman.

The Jakarta Post interviewed Yunita to get her views on the development of rafting as a favorite weekend pastime for yuppies.

QUESTION: Whitewater rafting used to be regarded as a dangerous sport, especially after a number of people were killed here in Indonesia. How did it then become so popular among yuppies here?

ANSWER: Whitewater rafting has been around in Indonesia since 1975, when there was a competition on the Citarum River, West Java, organized by the Wanadri nature lovers club. At that time, most of the participants did not have any knowledge about rafting. They had guts but improper equipment. As a result, seven people died.

The media began to dwell on rafting accidents and people started to get scared of the sport. It was an international whitewater rafting expedition, called Sobek Expedition, that introduced whitewater rafting as a commercial sport in Indonesia.

Sobek, which was part of the Mountain Travel expedition company, introduced commercial whitewater rafting on the Alas river in Aceh, the Ayung river in Bali, the Sa'adah river in Sulawesi and the Citarik river in West Java.

Now there are more than 100 whitewater rafting clubs in the country, of which only 11 are professionally managed. And then we have the federation, which groups not only the commercial clubs but also the non-commercial clubs, including those from universities.

Q: What's the idea behind establishing a federation?

A: We have some commercial rafting operators which are very advanced in terms of equipment compared to the others. However, there are non-commercial rafting clubs which do not have proper equipment. They still use marine rafts, for instance.

Well, many of those clubs take guests because they see it as a profitable business. But most of them are not serious. They don't have proper equipment for their guests' safety. It worrying because if there's an accident, then all of us will take the blame.

Commercial and non-commercial rafting clubs have to help each other and reduce the number of rafting casualties, if possible to a zero level. The accidents are usually caused by a lack of knowledge and proper equipment. For instance, they do not survey the river first, or use proper rafts.

The more river rafting accidents you have the more difficult it will be for commercial clubs to attract guests. When Arus Liar started its operation it had difficulties in marketing its product. People were still scared of rafting because of the media accounts of so many people being killed in rafting accidents.

Therefore, commercial and non-commercial rafting clubs established the federation so that the members could exchange views and knowledge and communicate with each other. In addition, they can also exchange guests. We now have better relationships among commercial rafting groups. However, some commercial clubs refuse to join the federation and think that they only have to give a donation to the federation.

Q: Do you get support from the government?

A: Yes, we receive support from Pak Sarwono (Kusumaatmadja, State Minister of the Environment) and Maj. Gen. Soeharto, the marine commander, who is our patron.

Q: What are your plans as the new head of the federation?

A: First of all, we will try to convince those who are not yet members to join us. By joining the federation, they will get a lot of advantages, like what I have just explained. Of course, they will be competing against each other to attract guests but it should be done fairly.

We will try to set standards and criteria for equipment and rafting guides to ensure that they provide secure rafting services to customers.

We will also continue rafting promotion activities so more and more people will try whitewater rafting, either for a hobby or just for relaxing on weekends.

Q: Do commercial clubs have to insure their guests?

A: As far as I know, there is no government regulation. Only a few rafting firms insure their customers. The federation plans to include insurance requirements for the establishment of commercial rafting firms. So, when people ask for recommendations on how to start the business, we will require them to provide life insurance for their guests and also their rafting guides.

Q: There are those who say that commercial whitewater rafting damages the environment, especially the river. How would you respond?

A: I've heard cynical comments from some non-governmental organizations that we -- commercial rafting operators -- damage the environment. Of course that's not true. We have invited them to try our rafting trips to show them that we do not cause any damage. If we did, we wouldn't be able to sell rafting to our main customers, who are middle and upper-class people that are aware of environmental issues.

Arus Liar has invested a lot of money to help preserve the environment. We needed nearly a year to change the behavior of our local staff, like refraining from throwing garbage into the river. We have some 50 local staff members. We also cooperate with local administrations to educate the those living on river banks about the importance of keeping the rivers clean.

Yes, there are still people who wash their clothes in the river. We cannot do much about this because if we don't want them to wash in the river, we must provide washing places for them away from the river.

Arus Liar is now studying the prospects of opening a branch on the Cicatih river. The water is dirty but the streams are good.