Fancy a dip? Dredging programme gives Jakarta’s polluted and smelly rivers a new lease of life
A group of children gathered on the banks of the Ciliwung river in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, staring into the water and casting nets to try to catch fish.
Much has been achieved, our rivers used to be very filthy
Such a scene would have been unthinkable several years ago on the major river, which used to be heavily polluted with stinking rubbish that blanketed the water’s surface.
The waterways that criss-cross the teeming, overcrowded city of 10 million inhabitants are getting a new lease of life after the local government began a programme to dredge and widen them in 2014.
“Much has been achieved, our rivers used to be very filthy,” Isnawa Adji, head of the Jakarta environment agency, said.
The rivers have been a central part of life for many in Jakarta for years, particularly those living in the poor slum areas that have grown up alongside them.
It is common to see adults and children swimming in the filthy water to escape Indonesia’s searing, tropical heat, and small, wooden boats navigating the waterways.
As well as ridding Jakarta’s 14 rivers of rubbish, authorities have pushed a programme of evictions to clear housing alongside the waterways, allowing them to be widened.