Muddying the Waters in Java

Jun 10, 2011


It’s hard to believe that this used to be the site of a river that once flowed clear, with strong banks, volcanic stone formations and lush bamboo groves. The picturesque beauty of the Brantas River in East Java has since been replaced by plastic waste and brown, murky water.

But the pollution doesn’t end there.

“People used to relieve themselves in the sugarcane and in the morning they would squat in rows and defecate into the river as they chatted,” said Subowo, chief of the village of Pucangan on the riverbank. “At night they would use a plastic bag and dispose of their waste in the river in the morning.”

Despite recent efforts to reduce pollution caused by the local community, many have failed to change their habits.

The problem is further compounded by the fact that the people of Pucangan use the water in the river not only as a toilet, but also for cooking, bathing, laundry and washing themselves before prayer.

The community is divided between those who are working hard to amp up sanitation efforts and those who use the water freely for their chores and personal hygiene needs.

Subowo, who has been chief of the village since 2008, has done his part by erecting signs and educating the public about toilet use. The trouble paid off when the local government issued a grant in 2009 to help the village implement clean water programs and improve plumbing.

Better plumbing means the students at the Futuhiyyah Islamic boarding school no longer have to use the river water to cook, drink or bathe.

The school, located in Bendingan, now has two toilets. But even those are filthy. Furthermore, students at the school still use the river water to wash their hands, faces and feet before prayer.

“According to Islam, water that is polluted can still be pure,” said Anwar Sholikhin, a religious teacher, or kyai , at the school.

He added that water found in volumes higher than two cubits is considered clean enough for ritual cleansing.

While contaminated water may be halal from a religious standpoint, Dr. Sri Marniati, head of the Ngrambe Community Health Center, said it still should not be used.

Washing in the water from the river can result in health problems such as diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, typhus and skin diseases, Marniati said.

She added that using the water for food preparation is especially harmful.

“Agricultural chemicals in the rivers can cause poisoning,” she said.

The local government of Ngawi, another village along the Brantas River, is trying to eradicate public defecation by 2013, according to Marniati. She herself is doing her part to ease the problem by educating the public about sanitation and hygiene. But it’s been a struggle.

“Young mothers teach children to pass their stool at the kitchen door so that the chickens will clean it up,” she said.

“Even though this is only a small amount of excrement, these habits must be eradicated and children should be educated on the proper ways of defecating.”

But health education is not a recent phenomenon in the area, Subowo said.

Public toilets were built during the New Order period, but they were unsuccessful with the public, who preferred to have them in their private homes.

Now the government provides funding and materials for people to install toilets at home. This approach has been more successful.

“Now in my village, only the elderly still insist on using the rivers,” Subowo said.

Today, Kajar spring further upstream in the Brantas River is still a spot for laundry and bathing. It is located at one of the bending banks of the rushing Lawu Mountain creek. It slows when it reaches the flatland 10 kilometers below, as it joins Bengawan Solo, the longest river in Java.

The spring is covered by an unattractive slab of concrete meant to serve as a reservoir, where several spouts flow with clean water.

Fourteen-year-old Asti washes her clothes in a plastic bucket. The laundry detergent spills into the river. Plastic debri from soap, shampoo and detergents litter the ground around the spring.

“In the weekends, there are many more people here,” Asti said. “They come to wash and bathe.”

Further upstream in the village of Tawangrejo, the river is clearer still, not carrying with it Java’s topsoil that turns the water into the color of chocolate milk.

A shy, elderly farmer bathes with his water buffalos after a morning’s work on the terraced hill rice fields. Another washes his sheep.

A few kilometers down, where the water is milky brown, 35-year-old Isnaini works in the river. He quarries sand from its floor, earning between Rp 30,000 to Rp 40,000 ($4 to $5) a day. He loves the river.

“For bathing, it beats pulling water from the well,” he said. “You can just jump in.”

His children inherited this love for the river, but they have fallen ill from the river before. “There are some diseases they get, like diarrhea, vomiting and such. But that is usually in the dry season when human excrement stacks up on the river banks.”

He says he worries more about flash floods than disease from the river.

Further downstream, M. Anis Al Afat, a kyai at the Syarifatul Ulum Islamic boarding school, hopes for a better future for the environment.

“Mankind lives from water, so it is our obligation to conserve and protect it,” the 49-year-old kyai said. “In my view, people who defecate in the rivers are immoral. They are harming our health.”

A quick inspection of his school’s restrooms, which consist of two squats separated by a short wall, reveals toilets that are just as filthy as the school upstream.


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