0nly Garbage Remains in Our Seas

KOMPAS/AGUS SUSANTO

Lisa (53), a garbage scavenger in Muara Jaya Village, Pantai Mekar Village, Muaragembong District, Bekasi Regency, West Java, Thursday (27/10/2022).

Lisa (53) was panting when she arrived from the beach behind her house in Muarajaya village, Pantai Mekar village, Muaragembong district, Bekasi regency, West Java. She was carrying a sack full of plastic waste.

At that time the wind was strong. "It's difficult for us to catch fish. If we don't look for garbage, what should we do to survive?" the woman with five children said on Thursday morning (27/10/2022).

Lisa and her family are the last residents to live in Muarajaya village. Since the early 2000s, the village has been abandoned by the entire population due to abrasion. That morning, for almost two hours, she picked up a variety of plastic waste on the edge of Jakarta Bay. Although dense with mangroves, the sandy beach is no longer visible. A variety of plastic waste has covered the sand.

On the coast of Kampung Muara Jaya, a number of residents in boats were pacing the sea. They were not looking for fish, but instead competed to pick up plastic waste from the sea.

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Unlike other residents, Lisa picks up plastic waste by walking along the coast. Her old age is one of the reasons she no longer uses the boat when looking for garbage.

The garbage that Lisa collects is usually sold for Rp. 2,000 (13 US cents) per kilogram. Every week, she earns about an average Rp 50,000 from selling plastic waste. She uses the money to buy rice and gallons of water. One gallon of drinking water is sold to residents at a price of Rp 7,000. The water gallons are supplied from areas outside Muaragembong and Jakarta.

Residents of Muarajaya and Muara Gembong villages in Muaragembong district no longer use groundwater or river water, because they are no longer safe for drinking.

Be friends with garbage

The large amounts of waste collected by residents in Pantai Mekar village and Pantai Bahagia village, Muaragembong, came from the Cikarang Bekasi Laut (CBL) channel. Some of the plastic waste is said to have come from Jakarta and reached the coast of Muaragembong due to the wind and waves.

“Especially in the rainy season, there is a lot of waste. The sea water becomes black and smelly. A lot of fish have died," said Lisa.

There are countless dead fish. Local residents collect the dead fish and dry them before selling them at the market.

Pantai Sederhana village and Pantai Mekar village in Muaragembong, Bekasi, are only separated by one tributary of the Citarum river. Residents in the two villages mostly work as fishermen.

Especially in the rainy season, there is a lot of waste. The sea water becomes black and smelly. A lot of fish have died.

Their daily life as fishermen can be seen by the hundreds of fishing boats on the left and right banks of the Citarum river tributary. Usually residents in the two villages cross the Citarum river from morning until night to catch fish.

Areas that are supposed to be abundant in fish, prawns, crabs and various other marine products are longer visible, as seen during an observation carried out from Wednesday to Friday morning (26-28/10).

Dedy, one of the fishermen from Pantai Mekar village, for example, has not been to sea for months. He chooses to look for plastic waste on the beach or to work odd jobs. "So, we just do what is available to do," he said.

KOMPAS/AGUS SUSANTO

Two scavengers carry plastic waste in Pantai Mekar Village, Muaragembong District, Bekasi Regency, West Java, Thursday (27/10/2022).

When going to sea, they have to borrow between Rp 200,000 and Rp 300,000. The biggest expense is to buy 15-20 liters of gasoline. "We buy Pertalite gasoline from a retailer. Since the increase in the fuel price, we buy Pertalite at Rp 14,000 per liter," he said.

Tandi, one of the staff members of the maritime affairs division of Pantai Mekar village, said that most of the fishermen in his village had stopped going to sea in the past six months. Fishermen suffered losses since the price of crabs plummeted. The price of crabs at the fishermen's level is currently Rp 18,000 per kg, down from the previous Rp 80,000 per kg. In fact, fishermen in the villages of Pantai Mekar and Pantai Sederhana lived and prospered from crabs for many years.

“Fishermen live from what is provided by the sea. If the sea is like this again, you can't do anything. There is a pond, but only certain people have it, mostly from the city,” he said.

Jakarta Bay Garbage

Garbage on the coast of Muaragembong, which residents say comes from the CBL channel, is not a mystery. On the edge of the CBL channel, to be precise in Sumberjaya village, Tambun Selatan district, Bekasi regency, there is a 1.3-kilometer long illegal garbage dump, which has been closed off by the Bekasi Regency Government since January 2022 (Kompas, 29/1).

The garbage dump located on the banks of the CBL was raised by the Sungai Watch river monitoring institution. The nonprofit organization, in one of its posts on Instagram on 23 Jan. 2022 stated that the garbage dump was the largest illegal dumping ground in Indonesia.

In 2019, researchers from the Oceanographic Research Center of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Muhammad Reza Cordova and Intan Suci Nurhati, wrote that an average of 97,098 pieces of garbage enter Jakarta Bay from nine rivers with an average weight of 23 tonnes per day. Of that amount, about 59 percent is plastic waste (Scientific Reports, 10/12/2019).

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Another research written by Haifa H Jasmin and friends (The Journal of Tropical Marine Science and Technology, IPB University, April 2019), informs that the speed of sea surface currents in Jakarta Bay is relatively low, at 0-4 meters per second. A member of the research writing team, Widodo S Pranowo, said that this condition occurs because the dominant current in Jakarta Bay is the current generated by tides and ebbs.

"Because the current only goes back and forth, garbage material is stuck on the north coast of Jakarta, trapped," said Widodo, who is also a researcher at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry (Kompas, 12/12/2019).

The real impact of the pollution of Jakarta Bay has been felt by residents on the coast of Muaragembong, Bekasi. The fish in the sea have disappeared, replaced by garbage. They live in anxiety. Another threat, in the form of abrasion, continues to occur in front of their eyes.

This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi.