Potential skin and diarrheal diseases as a result of pollution at watershed (DAS) has already endangered public health. Covid-19 has now been added to the list of diseases.
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Kompas/Harry Susilo
Fishermen weighing up squid to be sold to collectors at the side of Citarum River, Muara Bendera area, Muara Gembong district, Bekasi regency, Tuesday (2/1/2018). In the last 17 years or so, the amount of catch by squid-hunting fishermen in Muara Gembong has declined due to pollution from the upstream of the Citarum River.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Environmental damage as a result of river basin mismanagement has affected people time and again. The residents of estuary settlements along the northern coast of Java (Pantura), for example, are affected every year by floods during the rainy season and droughts druing the dry season.
Potential skin and diarrheal diseases as a result of pollution at watershed (DAS) has already endangered public health. Covid-19 has now been added to the list of diseases.
The residents of six villages in Muara Gembong subdistrict, Bekasi regency, were affected by severe flooding from the overflowing Citarum River on 24 Feb. 2020, with evacuees only beginning to return to their homes in early March. The flooding was caused by sedimentation in the Citarum delta and river embankments that had collapsed at several points.
Muara Gembong resident Yusuf Maulana, 38, said on Sunday (29/3/2020) that flooding was a frequent occurrence in his area. Water from the Citarum could no longer be used as drinking water since around 2000 because it was polluted.
Data from the Bekasi Disaster Mitigation Agency shows that the flooding on 24 Feb. 2020 affected 22 out of 23 districts in the regency. The flooding was caused by several large rivers that had overflowed their banks, including the Citarum and the Cikarang Bekasi Laut rivers.
Kompas/Harry Susilo
Students of state elementary school SDN Pantai Bahagia 02 going to school on the Anugrah wooden motorboat cruising along the Citarum River, Muara Gembong District, Bekasi regency, Wednesday (23/8). The boat is a school vehicle for students of SDN Pantai Bahagia 02. Each student is charged Rp 4,000 for the ride per day.
River siltation and narrowing, as well as the conversion of land along riverbanks, are the classic reasons underlying the persistent flooding in Bekasi. The same thing has happened in Subang, Karawang and Cirebon in West Java, as well as coastal areas like in Brebes and Pekalongan in Central Java, and Gresik, Surabaya and Sidoarjo in East Java.
River water has also been polluted by garbage, as well as household and industrial waste. Household waste includes human excrement.
The head of environmental impact management and recovery at the Cirebon Environment Agency, Yuyu Jayudin, said that the water quality standard of almost all rivers in Cirebon were in extremely poor condition, or grade four.
People living in houses without toilets either use public toilets or practice open defecation.
Regarding domestic waste, Cirebon regency’s 2019 Public Welfare Statistics shows that only 75.01 percent of 320,000 households in the census had their own toilets, leaving 24.99 percent of all households in the regency without toilets. People living in houses without toilets either use public toilets or practice open defecation.
Gresik Environment Agency head Mokhammad Najikh said the agency had asked village officials along the Bengawan Solo to inform its residents not to use the river’s water for drinking or cooking. The river water could still be used for bathing, washing, irrigation and for fish ponds.
Kompas/Benediktus Krisna Yogatama
Residents of the Citarum riverbank in Cihampelas village, Cihampelas district, West Bandung regency, picking up rubbish left at the riverbank, Tuesday (2/1). The rubbish which has been carried in the river from Bandung city, Bandung regency and Cimahi city is picked up and turned into a source of livelihood for most of the locals.
"The pollution of the rivers in East Java is caused by industrial and domestic waste," said executive director Prigi Arisandi of the Ecological Wetland and Conservation (Ecoton).
Life amid plague
The latest scientific study indicating the possible transmission of Covid-19 through human waste by Xiao F., Tang M., Zheng X., Liu Y., and Shan H. from Sun Yat-sen University in Zhuhai, Guangdong, China, was published on 27 Feb. 2020 in the Gastroenterology journal. The study discovered that the fecal-oral route was a new route of transmission for the virus (Kompas, 19/3).
The WHO has never mentioned [fecal-oral transmission]. The benchmark is the WHO standar.
Health and climate change chairman Budi Haryanto of the Indonesian Public Health Experts Association said that transmission of the coronavirus that caused Covid-19 through the mucosa (membrane) of the mouth, hose and eyes was proven. "The WHO has never mentioned [fecal-oral transmission]. The benchmark is the WHO standard," he said.
The environmental health professor at the University of Indonesia’s Public Health faculty, however, emphasized that the variety of river pollution, such as pollution from chemical waste and biological waste including the E. coli bacterium, showed that some people were at risk of infection. If the government was unable to conserve the watershed, there must be a solution to providing clean water for local residents. (VAN/BRO/NIK/MEL/ IKI/XTI/RTG/TAM)
