If you’ve had some beach time in Bali lately, you may have noticed that the shore has been trashier than usual. And not because of the schoolies.
Literally tons of trash have washed up to the beach, an unfortunate annual occurrence and signifier that rainy season in Bali is here. As the rain pours down, all the trash dumped in streams and rivers finds its way to the ocean and lines the coasts.
This weekend, North Kuta’s Pangi River especially overflowed dramatically, apparently sending trash all along Pererenan Beach.
The volume of waste collected by the Badung Regency Department of Sanitation and Public Spaces (DKP) increased by 10 percent over last week, from approximately 210 tons of rubbish being collected per day—or 25 truckloads of trash, Merdeka reports.
Head of DKP Badung, Putu Eka Merthawan blames the appearance of so much trash on the extreme weather, where there’s been non-stop, heavy rain.
“Extreme weather like this makes the waste volume increase dramatically,” Merthawan told Merdeka on Sunday.
Merthawan says his department has its work cut out for them to clean up Badung, especially as more tourists flock to Bali for the new year.
“Because at the turn of the year when the garbage comes, tourists also come. So we’ve got a lot of work.”
