A Report On The Citarum River Basin

1005 Words3 Pages

Mother nature has taken the biggest beating of all when it come to pollution. It seems that we just dump our trash wherever we want. We don’t see the true impact these actions have on our environment until it 's too late. Once we realize what 's been done the damage has already been done, it 's irreversible. The Citarum River Basin located in Indonesia has suffered the most. Textile factories located along the coast have dumped toxic waste in the the river causing illnesses and death, we need to clean up the Citarum River. With all this The Citarum River has to return to a place where people feel safe.
The Citarum River Basin is home to around thirty-five million people. Most of these people still rely on the the river for food, water, and bathing. However, this river isn 't just home to people. Dozens of textile factories are located on the river, some of which release toxic chemicals that are used to manufacture clothes. According to the Green Peace’s some of the chemicals include chlorinated solvents, phthalates, brominated chlorinated flame retardants, azo dyes,heavy metals: cadmium, lead, mercury and chromium all of which have an adverse effect on the body. Some symptoms include adverse effects on central nervous system, liver and kidneys,cancer and even death. Most of the chemicals are banned in countries with more government regulations on Textile Factories, some of which include big name brands like Adidas and Gap,. But because of the Indonesian financial crisis in the late nineties the country has lacked funds, so there are fewer regulations and more laws being broken by textile factories. According to a Daily Mail interview with a Local fisherman who live on the Citarum river say that, “Textile factories illegally dump...

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...people of Citarum River basin come together and demand textile factories to have more regulations there will be a change. By educating the locals on what 's factories are polluting in the the Citarum, anger and frustration will be sparked, and with this a demand for more regulations will be presented.
The Citarum river is used by millions of people everyday, and it 's been that way since the beginning. By allowing factories to dump their pollutants into the river we justify pollution for not only this but for all future events similar to this. Textile factories are poisoning the people and killing their livelihood. If we begin to dredge, allow natural life to return and educate the Citarum river basin population. The citarum river basin can go from being the most polluted river in the world to the cleanest river in the world, but it all starts with the first step.

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