PHOTOGRAPHY: Bekasi’s ‘River of Garbage’

Plastic waste, food scraps, even mattresses and motorcycle helmets could be seen clogging the Jambe River in Bekasi, West Java, on Wednesday. The air reeks with a nasty smell as children play on its banks after school.

The river runs – or more correctly, flows ever so slowly – behind Satria Jaya Permai, a housing estate in the east of the Greater Jakarta area. It is almost always dirty but for the past three days it has been totally covered in rubbish, living up to its name as Bekasi’s “River of Garbage.”

Yuli, 40, who lives only 10 meters away from Jambe River, said she feared a flash flood if heavy rain suddenly came while the river is still filled with refuse, just as it happened in 2014.

“If nothing is done about the garbage covering the river, I’m afraid there will be another flash flood like what happened five years ago. We were neck-deep in water back then,” Yuli said.

“The garbage comes from Bogor, not from around here,” she said. /

BY :YUDHA BASKORO

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