22.01.2025
Hundreds Of Volunteers Join Cleanup Effort As Bali Faces ‘Worst’ Plastic Pollution From Monsoons
Hundreds of volunteers joined a cleanup in Bali, Indonesia, today as monsoon rains brought what an activist described as “the worst” waves of plastic waste to hit its tourist-favoured beaches. The South-east Asian nation is one of the world’s biggest contributors of plastic pollution and marine debris, with annual monsoon rains and winds sweeping mountains of plastic waste from its cities and rivers into the ocean. Across Kedonganan beach in the south of the island, plastic cups, straws, cutlery, and empty coffee sachets were scattered across the sand, mixed with plant and wood debris. Around 600 volunteers, including local residents, hospitality workers, and tourists, braved a rainy morning to pick up the waste by hand before filling hundreds of large sacks. The Environmental NGO Sungai Watch called it “the worst” plastic waste pollution to wash ashore in Bali. “We have never seen plastics a metre thick in the sand. In just six days of cleanup, we collected 25 tonnes, which is a record for us,” said Sungai Watch founder Gary Bencheghib. Bencheghib said an audit found most of the plastic waste came from cities on neighbouring Java, Indonesia’s most-populated island.
Credit: SUNGAI WATCH
Credit: SUNGAI WATCH
Poverty deprives people of adequate education, health care and of life's most basic necessities- safe living conditions (including clean air and clean drinking water) and an adequate food supply. The developed (industrialized) countries today account for roughly 20 percent of the world's population but control about 80 percent of the world's wealth.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
