Destinations known | ‘Tsunamis of trash’: the Bali-based ‘river warriors’ clearing Indonesia’s beaches and waterways of waste and helping villages end illegal dumping
- The volunteers of NGO Sungai Watch, founded by 3 Bali-raised siblings, have removed thousands of tonnes of waste from beaches and rivers there and in Java
- Meanwhile, Bangkok’s 20-storey Robot Building, inspired by a child’s robot toys, is undergoing renovation and could lose its distinctive features
Boyan Slat is something of a hero as far as Destinations Known is concerned.
The 29-year-old Dutch founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup – a non-profit organisation that develops technologies to rid oceans and waterways of plastic – has put his machines to work in Malaysia, Vietnam, Jamaica and the United States, as well as over the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but the river clean-ups began in Indonesia, on April 1, 2019, when the company’s Interceptor 001 began sieving rubbish out of the Cengkareng Drain, in Jakarta.
Although its next deployment will again be in Indonesia – this year will see Interceptor 020 go to work in stopping up to 1,000 tonnes of rubbish flowing annually down the Cisadane River, to the west of Jakarta, and into the Java Sea – The Ocean Cleanup has yet to work its magic in or off Bali, where, reports Bloomberg, a smaller outfit is tackling an all-too-familiar problem.
“Over a six-week period this spring, the Indonesian non-governmental organisation Sungai Watch collected more than 40 tons, or 80,000 pounds, of trash from Jimbaran Bay – traditionally a bucket list paradise known for its grilled seafood restaurants, surf break and idyllic Four Seasons Resort.”
Perhaps the saddest part of the newswire’s article is that the size of the haul “surprised nobody on-site”.