KUTA (AFP) – A tidal wave of plastic trash has left a normally pristine beach on the Indonesian resort island of Bali awash with garbage, a bleak annual event caused by the monsoon that has left tourists vexed and local officials scrambling to clean up.
The Southeast Asian nation has a mammoth marine waste problem, ranking as one of the world’s biggest contributors of plastic pollution and marine debris. Images showed Kedonganan Beach in Bali’s popular Kuta area covered in discarded plastic bottles, cups and packaging, much of which was driven towards Bali from Indonesia’s cities by prevailing monsoon winds and rains.
“I call on all people in Indonesia, don’t litter in empty lands, don’t throw rubbish on cliffs and rivers because it will end up on sea and will arrive at our beautiful beaches,” said local environment agency official Anak Agung Dalem.
Around 300 officers and six excavators were made available to help clear the trash, he said with a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) also helping out. For tourists, on whom much of Bali’s economy depends on, the garbage-strewn sands were a stark contrast to what they had seen in travel brochures.
“I came here because I heard that it was a very nice place to visit, but what I see is all of this plastic. It’s a real disaster for me, It’s impossible to stay here. I think I will never come back,” said tourist Denis Le Merre.
Nearby, some locals picked through the plastic trash for recyclable material, which can be sold for a few dollars. Each year, pounding rains wash away mountains of plastic waste from Indonesia’s cities and bulging rivers into the ocean, with some of it drifting for hundreds of kilometres and ending up on Bali’s beaches.
The trash wave is “something that repeats” on Kedonganan Beach and others in the area annually due to the monsoon rains and winds between November and March, according to Dalem. Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, has pledged to reduce marine plastic waste by 70 per cent by 2025. Tourists were frustrated by the sight of plastic piles washed up on the island’s beaches.
“I think it’s a horrible thing, and for tourists, it’s the reason why a lot do not visit Bali.
Because of the trash, sometimes I see this on other beaches,” said tourist Danil Kovalev, who has visited the island three times. While concerned about the trash problem, locals were confident the beauty of their island, which attracts millions of visitors every year, would come to the fore once again.
