Indonesia: Cleaning up Indonesia`s land and sea

Rahmad Nasution Antara 17 Nov 18;

Bogor, W Java (ANTARA News) - Plastic waste has, since decades, undoubtedly become a major problem in Indonesia amid the government`s serious endeavor to deal with the menace by highlighting its detrimental impacts on the country`s environmental sustainability.

Plastic waste, which has a serious impact on the quality of soil and water and may threaten the existence of living creatures, is closely related to the amount of the trash produced and used by Indonesians every day.

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya has noted that some 9.8 billion plastic bags are used in Indonesia every year, and almost 95 percent of it will end up as waste.

The ministry`s waste management directorate also estimated that the total number plastic straws, used by Indonesians every day, reaches some 93 million, increasing from nine percent in 1995 to 16 percent this year.

In addressing this problem, the Indonesian Government is formulating a national action plan, which has five main pillars: behavior change; suppress land-based pollution; suppress sea-based pollution; suppress plastic production and use; and improve financing mechanisms, policy reform, and law enforcement.

Of course, plastic waste is not just Indonesia`s problem. Instead, it has become a global challenge, as many other countries across the world also face the same problem or may also contribute to marine pollution.

As the world`s largest archipelagic state situated between two oceans, Indonesia is viewed by the Indonesian Foreign Ministry`s Director General for ASEAN Cooperation Jose Tavares as a "meeting point" of the movement of trans-border pollutants.

Hence, in dealing with this cross-border marine debris, he underlined the importance of regional and global solutions, as the ocean pollutants could have a broad scope and did not just affect certain areas of a country.

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), who recently attended the 33rd ASEAN Summit in Singapore, have also been aware of the urgency of this issue, particularly the one related to marine debris.

Their concern was highlighted in the Chairman`s Statement of this 33rd ASEAN Summit in which the ASEAN leaders, including Indonesian President Joko Widodo, recognized "the urgent need for collective action and coordination to address" this challenge.

For Indonesia, marine debris has had multiple impacts, as it has not just threatened the cleanliness and beauty of its large sea as well as marine life but it has also posed serious threats to the image of its tourism industry.

In February 2016, Kuta Beach in the Indonesian resort island of Bali, for instance, came under the glare of the local and global media for the varied trash washed up ashore this popular beach.

The image of unclean Kuta Beach was published by many print and electronic media, including "theconversation.com," which used the photo for an article written by Thomas Wright, a PhD student of Australia`s University of Queensland, dated 5/9/2017.

Wright pointed out that Indonesia was recorded as one of the world`s main contributors to marine plastic pollution due to its polluted rivers and streams, which distributed some 200 thousand tons of plastic to the ocean every year.

Two years after vast quantities of plastic waste washed up ashore Kuta Beach, the same issue again caught the global media`s attention. Last March, The Guardian`s news portal published a story on the diving experience of Rich Horner in Bali Island.

The British diver found vast quantities of trash floating in the sea of Bali and then filmed it. His video was then broadcast on his social media account and YouTube. This is indeed a wake-up call for the country`s tourism industry.

However, apart from the negativity arising from such publications, there is always a lesson learnt. Hence, such negativity should be prevented from spiraling out of control by encouraging both the regional and central governments to build a solid collaborative work.

The national action plan that the Indonesian Government is formulating should not just be left as a "paper tiger."

Instead of just being a document, the five main pillars stipulated in the action plan should fully be implemented by engaging regional governments and the people at large.





Editor: Yosep Hariyadi