ID :
108774
Fri, 02/26/2010 - 20:08
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/108774
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KENDARI BAY SILTING UP BY HUMAN BEHAVIOR : CITY MAYOR
Kendari, Indonesia, Feb 26 (ANTARA) - Kendari Mayor Asrun has called on the city's residents to stop throwing garbage into the waters of Kendari Bay because the bad habit was causing the bay to silt up.
"Kendari Bay is silting up everyday, please don't make the problem worse by continuing to consider the bay as a giant garbage dumping site," Asrun said in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, Friday.
Describing the critical condition the bay was in now, he said when it was low tide, most of the bay area emerged as dry land, unlike 10 years ago when the bay waters were still three to five meters deep during an ebb.
Several years ago, the city's main by-pass road always used to be under sea water during high tide but this no was longer happening today, he said.
According to some environmental observers, Kendari Bay is likely to dry up within the next few years if the local population did not stop dumping their garbage into its waters, he said.
The bay was not only silting up by trash thrown into its waters directly but also by mud, debris and wastes carried by the currents of dozens of rivers that flowed into it, the mayor said.
He said efforts to prevent rivers from contributing to Kendari Bay's silting-up process could only succeed with the cooperation of the authorities of the rivers' upstream regions, namely the districts of Konawe and South Konawe.
"The administrations of the two districts must also do something to prevent soil erosion and garbage dumping on the banks of the rivers' upstream stretches to reduce the enormous amount of materials that are carried into Kendari Bay every day," he said.
The Kendari city administration itself had taken a few measures of its own to slow down the bay waters silting-up process. It had installed large bags in the rivers' water to catch mud and light trash, and built canals to absorb debris-carrying river currents. "But these measures are not as effective as expected due also to continuing population growth along the rivers," Asrun said. ***
"Kendari Bay is silting up everyday, please don't make the problem worse by continuing to consider the bay as a giant garbage dumping site," Asrun said in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, Friday.
Describing the critical condition the bay was in now, he said when it was low tide, most of the bay area emerged as dry land, unlike 10 years ago when the bay waters were still three to five meters deep during an ebb.
Several years ago, the city's main by-pass road always used to be under sea water during high tide but this no was longer happening today, he said.
According to some environmental observers, Kendari Bay is likely to dry up within the next few years if the local population did not stop dumping their garbage into its waters, he said.
The bay was not only silting up by trash thrown into its waters directly but also by mud, debris and wastes carried by the currents of dozens of rivers that flowed into it, the mayor said.
He said efforts to prevent rivers from contributing to Kendari Bay's silting-up process could only succeed with the cooperation of the authorities of the rivers' upstream regions, namely the districts of Konawe and South Konawe.
"The administrations of the two districts must also do something to prevent soil erosion and garbage dumping on the banks of the rivers' upstream stretches to reduce the enormous amount of materials that are carried into Kendari Bay every day," he said.
The Kendari city administration itself had taken a few measures of its own to slow down the bay waters silting-up process. It had installed large bags in the rivers' water to catch mud and light trash, and built canals to absorb debris-carrying river currents. "But these measures are not as effective as expected due also to continuing population growth along the rivers," Asrun said. ***
