The Orange Troop from the Coastal Cleanliness Officer Unit of Seribu Islands Environment Office, unload waste transported from Tidung Island at Kali Adem pier, Muara Angke, Jakarta, Thursday (7/9). After cleaning waste along Tidung Island\'s coasts for three days, they collected 45 cubic of sea waste which was dominated by plastics.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The main cause of the heavy metal and plastic pollution of seas in Indonesia has been known for a long time: poor household and industrial waste management. The participation of all parties involved is needed to overcome this problem, so that its effect does not cause further damage to the environment and endanger public health.
The pollution of Indonesia’s seas by heavy metals and plastics is caused by human activity. In the case of heavy metals, the predominant source of pollution is industrial waste, while plastics come from household waste. In most cases, the waste travels downriver to the sea. Heavy metal pollution has been found in Jakarta Bay, Semarang Bay and Tanjung Benoa, which are the estuaries for a number of rivers.
Wiharyanto Oktiawan, head of the water laboratory at the environmental engineering program at Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java, confirmed that some areas in the Semarang Sea were contaminated by heavy metals. “Metals must come from industrial waste, certainly not from household,” he said in Semarang on Monday (11/9).
The industrial waste is carried by the river. This has been proven by the analysis of the Semarang Environment Office. Based on a water sample taken on May 15, 2015 from the Sringin River, the parameter of chemical oxygen demand is over the quality standard for river water. Meanwhile, Banger River has a biological oxygen demand that is also above the quality standard.
In Jakarta, the heavy metal content of a number of estuaries exceeds the threshold. Heni Agustina, sub-directorate head of marine quality and inventory at the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s Coastal and Marine Pollution and Damage Control directorate, said that the rivers empty in Muara Kamal, Ancol, as well as other seas.
Local source
Plastic pollution, meanwhile, comes from household waste. A study by Agung Damar Syakti, a marine pollution expert and also the dean of Fisheries and Marine Sciences at Raja Ali Haji Maritime University, Riau Islands, and his team found microplastic contamination in Cilacap Bay, Central Java, with a concentration of 2.5 milligrams per cubic meter. An investigation discovered that the major source of the microplastics was plastic waste found along the coast of Cilacap.
“Almost all microplastics identified at Cilacap Bay had only recently degraded, which indicates that the particles have not been in the sea for long. This means that the source is local,” Agung said.
He added that the study, which was published this year in the international journal, Marine Pollution Bulletin, shows the importance of land-based plastic waste management. “Only around 2.5 percent of the microplastics that we found in Cilacap were degraded long ago or have been in the sea for a long time. Therefore, only a fraction of it is possibly from other seas, maybe from other regions or other countries,” he said.
His study reinforces the findings of Jenna Jambeck (2015) that Indonesia is the world’s second biggest polluter of the marine environment by plastic, after China. In order to overcome the problem of plastic pollution, said Agung, a joint effort was needed that involved the government and citizens.
“The public needs to be educated about the dangers of plastic waste, but waste management also needs to be improved. Waste needs to be sorted at home so that it is more easily managed,” he said.
Heru Waluyo, the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s former director of marine pollution, said that state waste management facilities were not yet adequate. “In Cilincing, for example, there is one environmental community group that asked for help in managing their waste, but no vehicle was available to go there and pick up the waste. In the end, the waste was thrown into the sea,” said Heru.
Dwiyitno, a researcher at the Research Center for Product Processing and Maritime and Fisheries Biotechnology, said that even Jakarta, which was considered to have a decent waste management system, experiencing a lack of adequate facilities. “Of around 11,000 tons of waste produced a day, 2,000 tons of them are not picked up and are likely to end up in the sea. In Jakarta there is also only one public water waste treatment facility, which is in Setiabudi. Even the facilities there are minimal,” he said.
Heru added that regional leaders’ commitment in managing waste was not yet at the same level. Some areas, like Surabaya, now have a high commitment to waste management. “Jakarta is better; they have a special unit to clean waste in the water. This is the only one in Indonesia and it is a recent development,” he said.
Some areas actually had their own rules on waste management, including fines for those that littered. “But in practice, there have never been any reports of anyone being fined for littering,” Heru said.
Law enforcement
For heavy metal pollution, law enforcement was key. In the case of heavy metal pollution in Jakarta Bay, evidence showing that industries upstream had caused the pollution is provided in a study by Tarsoen Waryono, a geography department lecturer at the University of Indonesia. Tarsoen has mapped the level of heavy metalpollution in 13 rivers flowing into Jakarta Bay from their headwaters.
The heavy metals identified by Tarsoen included mercury (Hg), manganese (Mn), cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn). The identification was done in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013. The rate of heavy metal pollution has continued to grow.
The Environment and Forestry Ministry’s director general of Environmental Law Enforcement, Rasio Rido Sani, said that the government had given serious attention to environmental pollution, particularly those caused by hazardous waste (B3). As of August 2017, as many as 23 noncompliant companies that still dumped their waste haphazardly, including into rivers, had been imposed administrative sanctions, including ceasing their activities. Of these, only 5 companies had complied with their sanctions, but the remaining 13had yet to comply.
In the enforcement of criminal law, Rasio said, as many as 5 cases were under investigation, while another 8 cases were ready to be taken to court. Sentences had been handed down against the defendants, both individual and corporate, in seven cases. The ministry also facilitated police investigators to take action against the 13 companies suspected of committing a crime related to hazardous waste.
