River water for Drinking water source contains microplastics

SURYA Daily Newspaper 4/25/2020

Thara Bening Sandrina (17). Driyorejo High School student, with her sisters, researched the water content of Wringinom Mas River, Friday (24/4). The activity was to fill the study time at home during the Corona Virus Disease pandemic (Covid-19).

This research with 'River Warrior' community takes the example of Mas River in Wringinom Village and Sumengko Village. which is located in Wringinom District. The water is seen through a stereo microscope with a magnification of 100 times.

"From our observations, we have found a type of plastic fiber. Foam and plastic pieces, smaller than 5 millimeters." said Aeshnina Azzahra, a member of the community.

According to the River Captain, Thara Bening, Microplastic allegedly sourced from industrial waste - many industries and houses along the Kali Mas estuary.
"Along Surabaya River in Wringinanom and Sumengko, there are so many pile of plastic waste. Plastic bags, plastic straw, styrofoam, plastic packaging which is broke into microplastic," said Thara.

Next, This research answering the Department of Environmental engineering research-Faculty of Civil Engineering and Planning of ITS That the water in Surabaya river is known to contain microplastics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720320763


From this research, it is expected that public awareness of littering the environment. In addition, the role of local governments ro prevent waste disposal by the community.

"There must be an effort to control pollution of industrial waste and the behavior of not throwing plastic waste into the river so that we can reduce microplastic pollution in Surabaya River," she said

With microplastic findings in the Mas River in the Wringinom sub-district, residents were worried. the reason is that the river water is used as raw material for PDAM Gresik.
"It is feared that microplastic enters the human body and the pollutants will be included so that it disrupts the immune system, metabolism and the human reproductive system," said Tara
"And the behavior of not throwing plactic waste into the river so that we can reduce microplastic pollution in Surabaya River," She Stresses
additional information :
“We assume that the garbage is also plastic, considering the common used of non-biodegradable plastics with long decomposition rate. Other study result showed that when a landfill mining is conducted in passive TPA (final dump site which has been closed or no longer operates for more than 3 years), we found that plastic is at the highest rank,” Nita Citrasari, S.Si., M.T explained.https://www.unair.ac.id/site/article/read/2303/unair-lecturer-conducts-microplastic-study-in-surabaya-river.html

(Translated from SURYA Daily Newspaper Saturday 25 April 2020 Page 9)