Small Beginnings

Our country, Indonesia, has about 21 percent of total freshwater resources in the Asia-Pacific region; statistically we are not a water-scarce nation, but we surprisingly face a clean water crisis. The main causes of this issue are the water resources mismanagement and pollution. We actually have many renewable surface water resources, but most of them are highly polluted; for instance the Citarum River. Citarum is the longest and the most influential river in West Java and also one of the dirtiest rivers in the world; fishermen catching fish from this river are now picking up plastics from the water for recycling because the local ecosystem has been utterly devastating. There are about 20% of total industries and 60% of total textile industries in Indonesia alongside of it; its pollution from human activities and industrial waste is beyond words. More than 2,000 industries contaminate 5,020 sq miles of the river with lead, mercury, arsenic and other toxins. What I don’t understand is our government policy to cope with this problem; instead of controlling the citizens and industries that cause the pollution, our government focuses mainly on the river. We have owed hundreds billion rupiah for many cleaning projects that only offer temporary and manipulating solutions like dredging. We then owed another USD 500 million to the Asian Development Bank for another cleaning project, adding another burden to the economy, but until now the river is still suffering.

Another issue we’re facing is the smoke haze. Indonesia and its neighboring countries have been choking on smog from Indonesian forests annually since 1997 and we haven’t seen any significant action that our government does to stop the outbreaks from happening each year; in my opinion it’s because of our weak law enforcement and corruption rife. For God's sake it's been 20 years and still no improvement! The main causes of the smoke haze are the illegal fires started to clear the land cheaply and quickly by using the slash-and-burn technique for palm oil and pulp and paper plantations on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. There are always investigations held by the national police to find who’s responsible over the illegal blazes every year; this year’s investigation list includes 133 people and seven companies, but learning from the past years, there’s usually only a few convictions resulted from those. It’s said that this year’s haze had cost millions of dollars to our economy and more to be expected.

Since childhood, we have always been taught in schools that Indonesia is a wealthy country. Indonesia is a “mega-biodiversity” nation which has unusually high level of species richness because of its unique geography. It’s amazing that we are home to the third-largest tropical forest in the world, the first in species richness in mammals, and the leader in marine biodiversity. These, if well-played, could result in a huge benefit for our country. We also have many natural resources: we have significant natural gas reserves and are a major producer of liquefied natural gas. The Grasberg mine, one of the biggest gold and copper mine in the world is also located in Indonesia. The sad truth is we aren’t able to manage them well. Our diversity is under threat due to massive habitat loss, poaching, etc. Contact between humans and wild animals is increasing disastrously in Indonesia as deforestation, mining and palm oil concessions expand, fragmenting forest habitats and driving animals out of protected areas. We have lost 2 of our tiger subspecies: Balinese and Javanese tiger. Our fish and coral reefs are also at risk due to destructive fishing practices like cyanide and blast fishing even in protected areas. Our gas production is declining and the domestic consumption is rising that we have to import oil. Air pollution is severe. We can’t even manage our water resources well. Many people live in poverty. Indonesia is not balancing its potential and performance. Isn't it just sad?

Gandhi said “Be the change you wish to see in this world”. I think that's a beautiful phrase and I cherish it. Sometimes it feels like we are just specks of dust making insignificant efforts, but "greatness comes from small beginnings", doesn't it?

I once read about an environmental issue in Les village, Bali. The poor fishermen in Les village thought only of catching as many fish as possible by using poisonous potassium cyanide until all the fish had gone and the coral reefs were severely broken and they eventually lost their jobs as fishermen. They then knew that they were wrong and tried to make a change. People from a foundation called Yayasan Bahtera Nusantara help them to make that change. Les village is now a home to what’s called voluntourism where tourists can volunteer to plant and rehabilitate reefs. Fishermen are taught to fish using a sustainable fishing method. Now, their income is even higher than when they’re using the cyanide. It turns out that environment and economy doesn’t have to be contradictory to each other, they can support each other. Most fishermen were reluctant to change at first, only few wanted to join in desperation. Small beginnings, indeed. 

 
Maybe there is still hope for our country, started by doing any kind of kindness no matter how small.