On Friday May 11 th 2018 more than 8,000 people have joined a coastal clean-up effort across Bali.

Students, military personnel, police officers as well as local communities participated in the event on Friday,

which focused on beaches and coastal waters.

Almost 14 tons of trash were reportedly collected during the event. 

The coastal clean-up initiative was carried out simultaneously at Tanjung Benoa Beach in Badung regency,

Masceti Beach in Gianyar regency, Nyanyi Beach in Tabanan regency, Penuktukan Beach in Buleleng regency,

Gilimanuk Bay in Jembrana regency, Segara Kusamba Beach in Klungkung regency, and three beaches in

Denpasar, namely Matahari Terbit Beach, Biawung Beach and Mertasari Beach.

The clean-up task had been organized by the Environment and

Forestry Ministry’s Environmental Pollution and Damage Control

Directorate General in cooperation with the 9th Regional Military Command (Kodam IX) Udayana.

 There personnel is helping to clean up the beach to demonstrate our environmental awareness.

We want to work together with the community to make Bali cleaner," Kodam Udayana chief of staff Brig. Gen. Kasuri

Environmental Pollution and Damage Control Director General MR Karliansyah said

the coastal clean-up was aimed both at raising people's awareness and cleaning the coastal area of trash

. "Hopefully, this activity can make people more aware regarding littering on the beach,

change their bad habits and help reduce the use of plastic," he added. 

Based on research conducted the directorate general last year, it is estimated that the rubbish in the ocean across

Indonesia totals 1.2 million tons, which mostly consisted of plastic (31.44 percent) and wood (29.75 percent). 

Karliansyah said that the research was conducted across 18 regencies and cities, including Badung regency in Bali. 

"In Badung, for example, the research found that wood dominated ocean trash with around 64.22 percent,

while plastic trash only accounted for 13,9 percent." 

Despite ongoing efforts to clean up piling trash, the problem has continued to escalate,

with nearly every conceivable item – including coke bottles, syringes, thongs, sunglasses,

tetra packs, straws, the ubiquitous plastic bags, drift wood – littering the beach.

Massive beach clean up across Bali 

Last month, officials said that 50 tons of trash had washed up each day for five days.

In response, a quaintly-worded banner was  installed on Kuta beach,

reading: “We do apologise for this inconvenience, your visit [was] interrupted by natural phenomenon

in the form of annual waste of west wind impact.”

In fact, seasoned observers know this is far from a “natural phenomenon.”

Rather, it is a manifestation of the impact of excessive commercialization

and the lack of attention to environmental protection in Bali.

It is also a symptom of a broader problem in Indonesia, which has been declared the world’s second biggest

contributor of marine debris after China. Most of the marine debris that washes up on Bali’s shores,

it has been noted, comes from within Indonesia.

The consequences are dire. This problem is not just simply an inconvenience for tourists that frequent the island,

but has more important implications too, be it the risks of harming fish which support a robust local fishing industry,

or even more serious health issues for inhabitants.

Balinese authorities have announced some additional steps, including banning plastic bags.

And other measures such as heavier fines and jail terms for heavy polluters and more aggressive community

education programs continue to be discussed.

Yet it is far from clear whether these moves will be enough given that such steps are long overdue.

To be sure, Bali is far from the only example of this problem at play in Southeast Asia.

Phu Quoc, off the south Vietnamese coast, has a similar issue with garbage discharged

from Thailand, and similar cases can be seen in Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia.

Source : https://thediplomat.com / http://www.thejakartapost.com