TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A total of 10 cubic meters of waste, equivalent to 10 tons, piled up on the coast of Pari Island, Seribu Islands (The Thousand Islands), on Tuesday, November 27.

“The waste piled up at 2:00 p.m., but it was clean at 4:30 p.m.,” said Head of the Seribu Islands Environment Department Yusen Hardiman, when met at the DPRD (Legislative Council) Building, Central Jakarta, Tuesday, November 27.

Yusen said that the waste was shipped from rivers in Jakarta. It is carried by the ocean currents and piled up on Seribu Islands, especially Pari Island that is closest to Jakarta.

The sight of the piled up waste, said Yusen, is a common thing during the rainy season. The composition, almost 80 percent of the waste is in the form of plastic and wood. “There is also water hyacinth,” Yusen said.

During the rainy season, the volume of waste on the Seribu Islands usually reached 40,000 tons every day. The details are 17,000 tons of domestic waste, 1,6 tons of tourism waste, and 21 tons of waste from rivers in Jakarta. To clean up the waste, Yusen deployed 13 jumbo-capacity waste carriers.

The report about waste was first delivered by Edy, one of the residents of the island. He said the plastic waste mixed with crude oil piled up on the coast of Pari Island. “From 10:00 a.m., the waste piles up,” Edy said.

Edy said that the waste piled up again this afternoon on the coast of Pari Island. Because the ocean currents lead to the coast. At night, he estimated that some of the waste would be washed away.

M JULNIS FIRMANSYAH