It was once a gently flowing river, where fishermen cast their nets, sea birds came to feed and natural beauty left visitors spellbound.Villagers collected water for their simple homes and rice paddies thrived on its irrigation channels. Today, the Citarum river in crisis, choked by the domestic waste of nine million people and thick with the cast-off from hundreds of factories. So dense is the carpet of refuse that the tiny wooden fishing craft which float through it are the only clue to the presence of water.
Their occupants no longer try to fish. It is more profitable to forage for rubbish they can salvage and trade - plastic bottles, broken chair legs, rubber gloves - risking disease for one or two pounds a week if they are lucky.On what was United Nations World Environment Day, the Citarum, near the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, displayed the shocking abuse that mankind has subjected it to.
More than 500 factories, many of them producing textiles which require chemical treatment, line the banks of the 200-mile river, the largest waterway in West Java, spewing waste into the water.
Twenty years ago, this was a place of beauty, and the river still served its people well.As one local man, Arifin, recalled: "Our wives did their washing there and our children swam."Its demise began with rapid industrialisation during the late 1980s.
In December 5, 2008, The Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed to support Indonesia's efforts to clean up its most important river, the Citarum, through a $500 million multi-tranche loan, which will run for 15 years.
In December 5, 2008, The Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed to support Indonesia's efforts to clean up its most important river, the Citarum, through a $500 million multi-tranche loan, which will run for 15 years.
3 comments:
This is so pathetic, so sad, so horrific!!!
We need the media here every weekend until a major cleanup is done!
Was there in 1990. Parts of the water in Jakarta were lime green, and people were living on the 10 metre slopes between the road and the water. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. And jakarta is to-date the most disgusting, filthy, polluted place on this planet. No-one in their right mind should go anywhere near it.
what a shithole how the people living here should be ashamed
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