Workers clear up garbage piling up in Jakarta Bay area as part of the earliest local government combat against waste on its waters. (Source: (AFP/Dasril Roszandi)Jakarta (VNA) – Residents of the Thousand Islands off Jakarta’scoast are battling waves of trash, with an estimated 40 tonnes of rubbishcollected daily over the past week.
Indonesian authorities have deployed an army of staff and a fleetof boats to help clear the rubbish-infested shorelines and surrounding watersin an attempt to combat the Southeast Asian archipelago’s mammoth marine wasteproblem.
This week’s cleanup operation is centred around a string of islands known asthe Thousand Islands, a popular destination for day trip from thetraffic-clogged capital.
Residents ofone island have reported dead turtles in the area, although Yusen Hardiman,head of the region’s environmental department, said it was not yet clear if thiswas a result of ingesting rubbish.
Last week, asperm whale was found dead in a marine park off Sulawesi island with 115plastic cups and 25 plastic bags in its stomach.
Some 264 sanitation workers are involved in theongoing cleanup of the Thousand Islands, while 13 boats regularly patrol the trash-chokedareas of the archipelago, with 10 others set to be added to the fleet nextyear.
Home to over 17,000 islands, Indonesia faces serious environmentalpollution. It has pledged to reduce marine plastic by 70 percent by 2025.However, poor waste-processing infrastructure and low awareness among itsinhabitants have proven to be major obstacles.
Last year, popular tourist destination Bali island declared a “garbageemergency” after its beach was inundated with a rising tide of plastic waste. –VNA
VNA
