Governor Wayan Koster today declared that Bali is facing a “waste emergency,” ordering regional officials to implement waste management programs to combat the issue.
“Bali is in a state of waste emergency, and so it’s very urgent for source-based waste management programs to be implemented in village or sub-district areas and traditional villages,” Koster said today.
The program, he reminded, has already been laid out in existing regulations, including a Gubernatorial Regulation issued in 2019 and an official circular to implement such programs issued by his office this year.
The circular, for one, mandates that citizens begin the waste separation process at home, and prohibits littering, be it on land or various water sources, such as rivers.
Bali’s waste issue has long been highlighted by environmental activists on the island, with community organization Sungai Watch among those actively capturing the extent of the problem, such as with this post below:
Here some pictures from our clean up in belalang,kec kediri,kpt tabanan it was a great opportunity to get a lot of people involved and see what damage illegal landfill are doing to rivers and so to our oceans. Please help us ! #jagasungaikita #sungaiwatch #belalang #tabanan pic.twitter.com/MGlXP46fe7
— Sungai watch (@Sungaiwatch) February 22, 2021
