Indonesian Rivers Are Dying, Ecoton Holds Nusantara River Expedition

Amirudin Mutaqin and Prigi Arisandi are preparing to conduct the 2022 IRE by riding a motorcycle.

Sunday (27/2), they did a soft launch in Wonosalam, Jombang, with journalists, students and environmental activists

According to Prigi Arisandi, director of the Ecoton Foundation, IRE will travel for 300 days across 68 Cities. The team will make documentation about the condition of 68 national rivers and strategic rivers. ”Previously, we have explored several major rivers on the island of Java. Well, we will continue our efforts to announce the condition of the river by visiting 68 in the Indonesia,” Prigi said.Ecological Observation and Wetlands Conservation (Ecoton) will conduct environmental expedition. Namely, the Nusantara River Expedition or Indonesian Rives Expedition (IRE). In the expedition, which will start from early March to December, the IRE team will visit 68 rivers in Indonesia.Sunday (27/2), the team conducted a soft launch of the IRE program at the Upper Brantas River, Wonosoalam, Jombang, East Java. Present on the occasion were journalists, students, representatives of the environmental service (DLH) and river police from SMPN 1 Wonosalam.

There are several activities which will be held in 68 cities of the Nusantara River Expedition. First activity is Film Discussion of the 3 Rivers Expedition. Second activity is participatory research with the community for river health detection with indicators: diversity of fish, aquatic insects and local wisdom; water quality with indicators of pH, Total dissolved Solid (TDS), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Phosphate, Nitrate and Electro conductivity; and microplastic contamination.

These activities will be supported by making a documentary film on 64 rivers of Indonesia, inventory and profiling of Indonesian river observer communities, and identification of pollutant sources and causes of damage to Indonesian rivers (deforestation, oil palm plantations, mining activities, manufacturing industry and domestic waste).

The plan is that the trip will start from the Brantas River in Wonosalam, Jombang. Next, go to Cilacap there is the Serayu River. Then, continue to Sumatra. ”From Belitung, we will cross to Pontianak, West Kalimantan,” he explained.

In Kalimantan, the IRE team is planned to explore the condition of the river for two months. After that, the trip will continue to Sulawesi, Maluku, Papua. In October, the trip will arrive in Nusa Tenggara, then to the island of Bali and ends on the island of Java in December.

“Our goal is to show whether the condition of the rivers in the Indonesia is fine or polluted,” said the alumnus of Biology at Airlangga University, Surabaya.

Amirudin Mutaqin, Ecoton’s senior research team, said that the
IRE team will detect the health of the river, document it and turn it into a documentary. ”We also want to form communities that guard Indonesian rivers,” explained the alumnus of UPN Jatim Environmental Engineering.

Amir explained, previously in several river expeditions on the island of Java in 2021, it was found that many were contaminated with microplastic particles. Some of the rivers are the Brantas River, Bengawan Solo, Ciliwung, and Citarum. The fish in the river were also exposed to microplastics.

”From our findings, it is known that in tilapia in several rivers, the content of microplastics is quite high. So it’s quite worrying when it comes to consumption,” said Amir.

He emphasized that exposure to microplastics is a reflection of the poor condition of river water. At the same time, he continued, also evidence of poor river management from waste. Especially plastic waste thrown into the river. ”As much as 80 percent of plastic waste in marine waters also comes from rivers,” he concluded.

In yesterday’s soft launch, the findings of microplastic content from several samples were also demonstrated by students of Trunojoyo Madura University (UTM). One of them is the Wonosolam river which is still relatively clean. Then, the Wonosolam durian also contains zero microplastics.

 

Translated from : https://www.jawapos.com/jpg-today/28/02/2022/syiar-kondisi-lingkungan-gelar-ekspedisi-sungai-nusantara/?page=all