Holiday island
Flood of garbage overwhelms Bali
Volunteers collect trash from a river in Pecatu, Bali. The flood of rubbish that has overwhelmed many beaches and river banks for days is frightening. photo
© Firdia Lisnawati/AP
Garbage carpet instead of a dream beach: A flood of plastic bottles and barely identifiable rubbish has been washing ashore in Bali for days. The problem is not new – but the dimensions are.
Bali has been suffering from an enormous garbage problem for years. But the flood of rubbish that has overwhelmed many beaches and river banks for days is frightening even for the Indonesian holiday island – and is making headlines in local media and on social networks.
The beaches of Kedonganan and Kedonganan were particularly badly affected Jimbaran in the area around Kuta, which is popular with surfers, as well as the town of Pecatu with the famous Dreamland Beach, reported the newspaper “Bali Sun”.
100 tons of waste already collected
The garbage collection team and volunteers have already collected 100 tons of rubbish, especially plastic waste, since Wednesday, it said. “And there are plenty more.” Strong westerly winds regularly wash entire carpets of rubbish from the sea and ships onto Bali’s coast – much to the disillusionment of many tourists who had dreamed of picture-postcard beaches.
“I’m in Bali right now and there’s plastic everywhere on the beach and in the sea, from Jimbaran to Uluwatu,” wrote one disappointed vacationer in a Bali travel forum on Facebook. “Is there currently a beach without plastic?” According to “Bali Sun”, many holiday guests pitched in themselves and took part in the collection campaigns on particularly dirty beaches.
Indonesia is the second largest plastic polluter in the world
Apart from meteorological events, many Balinese also lack the necessary environmental awareness, say environmentalists. Many residents simply throw their garbage behind their houses, into embankments and rivers. “We hope that the government will be more consistent in waste management and improve knowledge about it among school children,” said Giri Mariani, who organizes garbage collection campaigns.
According to the UN, Indonesia is the second largest plastic polluter in the world after China. “The country produces 3.2 million tons of uncontrolled plastic waste annually, of which about 1.29 million tons end up in the sea,” said a 2020 report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). With more than 274 million inhabitants, Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world and the world’s largest island state.