Polluted Rivers: The Ciliwung

Today I wanted to write about one of the most polluted rivers in the world; the Ciliwung River in Indonesia.  The Ciliwung’s pollution comes at it from everywhere; raw sewage, industrial pollution, agricultural pollution, and household trash.  When you see pictures of this river, such as the one above, your heart sinks thinking about all the people that live along the river and what it has become.

The Ciliwung is 200 miles long and is the main river that runs through the capital of Jakarta.  Of the ten million people in Jakarta half live on less than $2 US per day, and a large percentage of those people live along the Ciliwung, which is its main problem.

The first thing you notice when you look at the Ciliwung as it runs through Jakarta is the amount of trash that is piled on its surface.  This is a terrible sight, but it’s what’s under the trash that is really the problem.  People that live along the Ciliwung use it for everything from washing themselves to cleaning clothes and dishes, for swimming, and regrettably for going to the bathroom.  Contamination from human waste is the biggest cause of pollution in the Ciliwung.

Photo via blogs.sacbee.com

Fortunately, or unfortunately, people don’t drink from the river anymore because of the pollution.  However, for most people the alternative is groundwater, and due to poor sanitation practices 90% of the groundwater is polluted with E coli.  So what do you do?  Either way you’re drinking polluted water.

A few areas do receive clean water to drink, but the supply is erratic and unreliable.

Knowing this it’s not surprising that according to the World Health Organization (WHO) 20,000 children under the age of five die from diarrhoeal diseases a year in Indonesia. An additional 30,000 people die from sanitation and hygiene related illnesses according to the World Bank.

Additionally, as is more common around the world the Ciliwung is polluted from agricultural runoff.  Nitrates from fertilizers are causing plant growth in the river which is leading to the river flow being impeded in some places.  Also, the plants are using up much of the oxygen in the river which is leading to fish not being able to survive.  And even though the fish are most likely very polluted they are a main source of food for people living along the river and are therefore needed to survive.

Industrial pollution also contributes to the pollution.  Factories along the river deposit all of their waste directly into the water every day leading to heavy metals, among other things, being found in the water.

Photo via bowshooter.blogspot.com

Although the Ciliwung is heavily polluted it can be fixed and there are a number of organizations and government bodies trying to make that happen.  The Environment Ministry has a 20 year plan to clean up the Ciliwung.  The plan is to break the river up into six segments which will allow local municipalities to better manage their section of the river.  The plan also will deal with zoning around the river in an effort to keep settlements away from the river.    20 years sounds ambitious, but it’s better to try for 20 years and it take 30 then try for 40 and it take 60.

The government in Jakarta has also been holding events to inform people on how they can help clean up the river.  During one such event they taught people how to turn household waste into fertilizer and handed out garbage cans to communities along the river and taught them the importance of not throwing their trash into the river.  They even hold competitions for how much garbage could be picked out of the water in a certain amount of time.  I think this is one of the best ideas they have.  Like with most things you have to make the communities aware of the problem and what they can do to help before any real movement can happen.

Besides the government there are a number of NGOs like the Ciliwung River Project and the Ciliwung Condet Community that are working to clean up the river.  A number of these NGOs are part of KRuHA, a coalition of more than 30 Indonesian NGOs that focus on making access to safe water a reality in Indonesia.

So as you can see this river needs a lot of help, but it sounds like if the government and the NGOs are successful it could happen over the next few decades.  Something I found interesting while doing research for this article is how hard it was to find any real details of where the pollution was coming from.  There were plenty of articles that talked about the pollution but I had to dig to find any real facts.  You would think that with millions of people being impacted and thousands dying a year due to this river there would be more info.  Kind of shows where the world media’s priorities are.  Thanks for reading.

Polluted Rivers: The Ciliwung
Tagged on:             

5 thoughts on “Polluted Rivers: The Ciliwung

    • July 26, 2012 at 11:39 am
      Permalink

      Thanks for the link. Looking forward to reading it.

      Reply
  • February 14, 2013 at 9:29 am
    Permalink

    Dear All,
    There is one such river in our town ( Guwahati, Assam, India ) also, named as Bharalu River. This is a small river and nowadays it has turned out to be open swear Line flowing through the Guwahati City. As of now, there are no efforts for it’s necessary remediation.
    Thanks a lot.
    Regards.
    Nripendra Kumar Sarma
    Guwahati, Assam ( India )

    Reply
    • March 1, 2013 at 6:50 pm
      Permalink

      Hi Nripendra,

      I’m sorry to hear about the state of the river in your town. I’m curious if the sewage is from piped sewers and is being discharged into the river, or is it that people are practicing open defecation and then it’s getting into the river?

      Regards,
      Brian

      Reply
  • March 4, 2013 at 10:44 am
    Permalink

    Thanks Brian for your concern too. Actually, there is no sewerage system in the town. All the sewage comes through the open drains from the areas in both the banks. People are practicing dumping / throwing of all sorts of wastes into it. Household liquid wastes are released into the drains and eventually to this river. There are some un-authorised settlers also in the river bank and they defecate I some insanitary toilets, from where the excreta leads directly to the river. Now, probably you can imagine, how pathetic condition, the river has …………… . We are just searching for right kind of approach to be initiated to rescue the river and at present we are discussing the issue at our personal level with some like minded friends.
    Thanks and Regards.
    Nripendra Kumar Sarma
    Guwahati, Assam, India

    Reply

Leave a Reply

135queries in 0.524 seconds