Industry Chokes River Habitat Near Jakarta
5/3/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Industry Chokes River Habitat Near Jakarta
Source: InterPress Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: May 3, 1999
Byline: Kafil Yamin
SAGULING, Indonesia, May 3 (IPS) - ''We are as poor as we were
before. But in the past, we lived in more comfort,'' rues Arifin, as
he looks out at the Citarum river near his village of Cimahilir
outside the capital Jakarta.
His remarks seem like a contradiction at first, but are not: By
''comfort'' he means that he and his neighbours used to be able to
fish in the river, wash in it and use it for recreation.
The older residents of Cimahilir by the river, west of Bandung city,
light up each time they talk about the community's better days,
especially the river's bounty and natural beauty.
Reminisces Arifin: ''Rice grew well. Harvest was always good, so we
always had enough rice for three months or so. We had fish in our
daily meals. Our wives did their washing in the river while our
children swam.''
''We enjoyed them all without requiring money,'' he recalls in an
interview.
But those days are just memories now. Today, harvest yields have
dropped sharply and rice shortages are frequent, affected by an
environment damaged by the heavily polluted river water that flows
into the paddy fields.
Women can no longer do their washing and children cannot swim in the
Citarum river, now dark and foul-smelling.
Hundreds of textile factories line the riverbanks of this once-
exotic site, dumping often untreated waste and chemicals into the
river.
''In the past, we breathe deeply when we are there. Now we have to
close our nose and hold our breath each time we pass through it,''
says Muharram, a 34-year-old Cimahilir resident.
The environment began changing during the eighties, when rapid
industrialisation spread to the area. As is what has happened to many
other parts of Indonesia and Asian countries, agricultural land has
been converted to industrial uses.
In the case of Cimahilir, this land conversion brought with it the
use of the river as a garbage bin for the factories.
The results have been disastrous. Because the Citarum river empties
into the Saguling lake, site of the largest power generator in West
Java province, its filthy water carries tonnes of garbage into the
lake as well.
Constructed in 1980 by the French company (??), the 700 megawatt
power plant occupies an area of some 1,500 square kilometres that was
converted from some 2,000 villages.
The power plant complex looks like a gigantic waste harbour, against
heaps of rubbish floating on the lake. The garbage keeps coming in
from different places carried by at least six rivers.
Not having other resources to rely on, villagers make use of the
polluted river anyway. They try to breed fish in the lake, though
fish kills are not uncommon.
Locals say the pollution is worsened by the fact it is not just
Citarum that flows into Lake Saguling -- it is the final destination
of two other major rivers in the province, Cisangkuy, and
Cikapundung, both equally polluted.
A recent study by the Institute of Ecology of the Bandung-based
Padjadjaran University found sharp increases of elements of nitrogen,
ortophosphat (PO4) and bio-chemical oxygen demand (BOD) in the three
rivers. The three are derived from both household and industrial
waste.
The rise in these elements are aggravated by the reduction of oxygen
in the river's water.
Dr Hilmi Salim, a member of the research team, pointed to another
readily evident symptom of poor-quality water in the fast growth of
'eceng gondok' or wild water plants, plankton, and 'sapu- sapu' or
mudslipper fish.
He reports that wild water plants cover up to 10 km of the lake
surface.
Salim says the deteriorating quality of the water bodes ill for the
future, even for the power plant itself and in turn, the factories it
feeds power to.
''The water volume will decrease a lot and when it reaches a certain
level, the power generator cannot function properly. The whole
province will return to darkness,,'' he says.
The research team concluded that the source of pollution is some 400
factories along the three rivers, many of which dump waste into the
water.
The economic crisis has exacerbated the situation, making the
factories unable to continue or put in new investment in cleaner
technology. ''Due to the crises, factories have abandoned pre-
discharge waste treatment they did in the past,'' Salim adds.
At least 15 textile factories dump their waste directly into Citarum
river, their discharge pipes visible to any visitor. They spew foul-
smelling and dark-coloured water into the river.
Now, Salim noted, what used to be free resources for living -- fish
and clean water -- have disappeared.
The hundreds of people living along the three rivers have deprived of
the fish they have long relied on for food.
Every morning and afternoon, residents queue up by certain spots to
get clean water. The water is ''provided'' by the same factories that
pollute the area, through small pipes outside their walls.
''Now we completely rely on the factories' generosity in water,''
complains Ahmad Sumardi, a resident of Dayeuh Kolot village, also by
the Citarum river.
The Indonesian Textile Association admits that majority of its
members discharge waste in a manner harmful to surroundings, but
instead put the blame on ''insufficient'' waste processing technology
provided by local governments.
Still, Prasetyo Sunaryo, of the environment division of the
association's body of technological assessment and innovation, agrees
that it is time businessmen looked not just at financial profit but
the larger good of the affected communities that host their
operations.
''If the businessmen are sensible enough and environmentally aware,
they would be willing to reduce their profit by a little portion for
the sake of environmental sustainability,'' he explains.
But as is commonly the case, high costs are invoked when it comes to
waste treatment. Argues Sunaryo: ''It costs 20 percent of the total
production cost.''