Save Citarum River

KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO

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Over the last two days, this daily has published articles on the destruction of the Citarum River from the upstream to the downstream. The river seems to have been left in a state of neglect.

In the Citarum Kompas expedition 2011 report, it was written that there is no other river that has a role and function as strategic as the Citarum River. Besides providing electricity to half of the population of Java and Bali through 1,888 megawatts of power production, the Citarum also provides water for agriculture, fisheries and industry and is a source of drinking water for about 80 percent of Jakarta’s population.

West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan was correct when he said, as quoted by this daily, “A nation can be said to be civilized if it has been able to manage water and waste.” Indeed water has always been the source of civilization. The Citarum contributes to civilization, like the River Nile in Egypt, the civilisation of which formulated a science on how to manage rivers.

A Kompas report on Monday, April 25, 2011, ran a title “Citarum polluted from the upstream.” The next day Kompas wrote “Pollution harms all parties.” Meanwhile, in Kompas’ edition on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018, the daily published an article titled “Citarum getting increasingly damaged.”

The destruction and pollution of the Citarum by the dangerous disposal of waste has been a fact for a long time. The waste endangers human health even though its impact is not instant. The impact of the waste and bacteria in Citarum, even though only building up slowly, is a humanitarian disaster that has to be overcome. Flooding, which hits Bandung every year, is caused by the fact that the Citarum and its tributaries are not optimally managed.

Resolving problems from the upstream to the downstream requires changing the community’s behavior by continuously paying attention to the community’s economy.

A sense of urgency and priority is needed to revitalize the Citarum. Therefore, the idea of Fragrant Citarum, which was initiated by Chief of Kodam III Siliwangi Military Command Maj. Gen. Doni Monardo, together with West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan and the central government, has to be supported by all parties that benefit from the Citarum or have contributed to its damage.

The management of the Citarum has to be comprehensive, not partial. Resolving problems from the upstream to the downstream requires changing the community’s behavior by continuously paying attention to the community’s economy. The improvement will take a long time and requires endurance. Resolving its problems should not merely use a project based approach, but also use the heart to rescue the Citarum and its surrounding communities.

We need a roadmap for the Citarum and a management team that directs what each party is responsible for. Seeing the damage to the Citarum, it\'s time for us to not just think only about power politics, but also environmental politics. Not just about democracy, but also ecocracy. Without environmental awareness, we fear that our desire to achieve a golden Indonesia in August 2045 would be hampered by only producing an anxious Indonesian generation.