Happy World Water Day 2016!

Water is an important part of our life. We use it to carry out our daily activities. If we use and treat it the wrong way, we might end up losing it, so we have to save it as best as we can.

Indonesia has over 5,590 rivers, most of them short and steep. Yet, people treat them incorrectly. Even though Indonesia’s water source is about 21 percent total water resources in the Asia Pacific region, clean water is becoming a serious problem in the country. Recently, about 80 percent of 250 million people in Indonesia have no access to piped water. Due to the difficulties and limited access to clean water, a large number of people still rely on rivers to carry out their daily activities; washing, drinking, and bathing. And it is a huge problem that so many people rely on rivers and lakes while others keep trashing and polluting water.

Waste puking from sewers and large pipes connected to factories and homes cause a serious damage to water and the living organisms that live or rely on it. Garbage thrown into riversides, which is then carried by the waves into the water, is also causing water pollution. Oil shipped from country to country often leak, poisoning the organisms in water. Though, not only water pollution brings serious damage to our needs for water, the impact can also hit on the living organisms in need of water, such as fish and many different kinds of farm animals we consume. We would starve and thirst.

There was an indication that people in villages who use rivers as drinking water tend to decrease from 22.8 percent to 22.5 percent during period 1999 until 2002. There are several factors causing the degradation of water resources’ quality in Indonesia, such as domestic waste and pollution. About 56.15 percent of households dispose their domestic waste directly to the river body.  (http://www.wepa-db.net/policies/state/indonesia/indonesia.htm)

As of 2015, an average person in Indonesia can produce 0.7 kilogram of waste per day. With 250 million people, a staggering 175,000 tons of waste is produced each day, amounting 64 million tons per year, according to data from the ministry. This waste is mostly dumped into landfill.
These landfills are struggling to cope with the ever-increasing waste as the population grows and the people consume more and more. 

For example, South Tangerang, a 147-kilometer-square city with 1.4 million people, is lacking an adequate number of temporary trash disposal sites (TPS). Many of the existing TPS are not functioning properly, forcing a large number of residents to burn their trash and suffer through the negative effects of air pollution.

(http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/10/09/indonesia-state-waste-emergency.html)

If we don’t reduce the amount of waste we produce every day, we would very soon run out of landfills and instead dump our waste into the rivers, lakes, and seas! Think of all the pollution we might cause.

And think about all the lives of many other animals! Oil lingering on water birds’ feathers poisons them, preventing them to be able to fly or survive in winter. Fish, dolphins, migrating whales, and sea turtles that get tangled in plastic and garbage, driven into sea shores would have a hard time getting unstuck and returning to its natural habitat – especially if people never tried to help them out, only satisfying themselves with photographs of the animals.    

Water animals are not the only animals suffering through water pollution; land animals which need water to bathe in and drink would suffer through the same things as well, leading them to death!

This isn’t only important for Indonesia, it’s important for all countries in the world!

Don’t wait for other countries to make amends; start now. Stop saying in the social media that you have to save water and preserve nature; start doing what you’ve always said. Although, words can provoke the minds of other people, do what you think is right before telling others to them too. 

Remember, actions speak louder than words. Once you do something good, others may follow.  

And because of that, it is crucially important to save as much water as we can;

-         When it rains, place large buckets under your drain pipes. The buckets collect the rain water and you can use it to water your plants or wash your car; you won’t have to waste it then.

-         When you wash the dishes, don’t run the water out, fill it into a pail and wash your soapy dishes there. That way, you won’t have to waste too much water.

You see, there are a lot of ways to save water, and use your creativity to save it! Reduce the waste you produce every day and stop littering. Use eco-friendly items that might help protect the environment.

One small change can make a big difference, so start making one now.

That is why we celebrate Water World Day; to remind the world how important water is to us.

SAVE WATER and HAPPY WORLD WATER DAY 2016