The scabies on Indonesian rice farmer Yusuf Supriyadi’s limbs are a daily reminder of the costs of living next to the “world’s dirtiest river.”
Supriyadi depends on the Citarum River’s murky waters — a floating carpet of household garbage, toxic chemicals and animal feces — to irrigate a small rice plot in West Java Province that sustains his family of six.
The farmer’s rice yield is now down by two-thirds in the rainy season as textile factories dump increasing amounts of industrial waste into the river, but he has few other options.
Photo: AFP
“There are floods during the rainy season. My hands get itchy and the harvest is damaged,” the 54-year-old told Agence France-Presse. “Pollution makes my rice hollow. If I keep going I’ll lose money, but if I don’t, I’ll have no other job.”
Now faced with a health emergency after decades of failed cleanup efforts, Jakarta is stepping in with a seemingly impossible goal: make the Citarum’s water drinkable by 2025.
Using this polluted water is a risky calculation for many of the 30 million people who rely on it for irrigation, washing and even drinking water — including about 80 percent of residents in the sprawling capital, Jakarta.
At nearly 300km long, the river is also a key source for hydroelectric power for Indonesia’s most populated island, Java, and tourism hot spot Bali.
The World Bank declared it the most polluted river in the world a decade ago, a description widely picked up by media and environmentalists.
Waste levels can vary depending on how pollution is measured and the time of the year, but the Citarum is dangerous by almost any standard.
Previous research has shown it has alarming levels of toxic chemicals — including 1,000 times more lead than the US standard for safe drinking water.
It regularly appears on most polluted lists alongside India’s Ganges River, the US’ Mississippi River and China’s Yellow River.
In January, Jakarta yanked responsibility away from local governments and vowed to get tough on business owners who ignore waste disposal rules. Factories that fall short could have operating permits revoked.
CCTV cameras are to be installed along the river’s banks to keep an eye out for offenders dumping waste in the early morning hours to evade detection.
Meanwhile, dredging equipment is to be used to clean up the filthy river, Indonesian Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries spokesman Djoko Hartoyo said.
“We are not playing around this time,” he said. “We’re going in with a holistic approach, so we are optimistic we can make Citarum clean again, just like it was 50 or 60 years ago.”
In the 1980s, a new industrial zone sprang up around the small town of Majalaya, about 170km east of Jakarta, and things quickly changed for the pristine river.
About 2,000 textile factories in the area have provided much-needed jobs, but they came with a heavy cost: About 280 tonnes of industrial waste are dumped into the river each day, government and environmental group data showed.
Making matters worse, many locals think nothing of tossing their household waste into its toxic waters.
“When it rains and my house gets flooded, the smell is awful,” Achmad Fachrureza said from inside an inflatable dingy as he navigated the river’s polystyrene foam containers, fabric, empty cans, plastic bottles and garbage bags.
The 57-year-old villager said he was fired from his job as a textile factory security guard after asking questions about the firm’s waste disposal system.
Factory pipes dump waste directly into waters bubbling with chemical dyes used in textiles, creating an overwhelming stench.
“Most factories here have a waste disposal system, but they don’t work properly, because it’s just a formality,” said Deni Riswandani of Elingan, a local environmental group.
That poses a serious health risk, especially for the 5 million people living in the river’s basin. Many locals suffer from skin diseases such as scabies and dermatitis, as well as respiratory infections from inhaling factory pollution.
“The number of people going to the health clinic is very high,” Riswandani said. “We keep reporting these issues to the government, but we never get a solution.”
He and other frustrated activists have blocked some waste pipes with rocks and concrete, but the factories usually remove the blockage right away.
Locals hope Jakarta’s new goals can be achieved, but they are also skeptical given the scale of the task and endemic corruption that could see factory owners try to buy their way out of trouble.
“I long to see the Citarum like it was when I was young,” Fachrureza said. “I could swim in it and drink the water. It was so clean.”
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure