Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Indonesia's trash-clogged Citarum River basin to get climate change funds

Fidelis E. Satriastanti in the Jakarta Globe (Indonesia): The Environment Ministry has initiated a program to address climate change issues in ongoing efforts to restore the polluted Citarum River basin. “There have been many projects set up to rehabilitate the Citarum River basin but there’s a ‘hole’ in it because we neglected to factor in climate change threats into the equation,” said Emma Rachmawaty, assistant deputy minister for adaptation of climate change at the Environment Ministry.

The Citarum River basin, one of the biggest and important in Java, flows through eight districts and two cities, Bandung and Cimahi, and supplies water for three major reservoirs in West Java — Jatiluhur, Saguling and Cirata. But the dense population along its banks, land use changes and waste issues have contributed to the basin earning it the title of one of the most polluted places in the world.

The project is a part of a program from the Asian Development Bank that includes a $2.55 million technical assistance grant to fight climate change. In the project’s first year, efforts will largely focus on funding education programs to teach district heads and other officials on the effects of climate change on the dirty waterway….

Railway bridge across the Citarum river, Tanjungpura, shot by GFJ Bley between 1920 and 1935, from the Tropenmuseum's collection

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