February 11th, 2008 
Spooky 
No matter how much you love swimming I’m willing to bet the farm you wouldn’t dare do it here…unless you have a death wish!
This is the Citarum river, in Indonesia, possibly the most polluted river in the world, due to mankind’s greed and insensibility regarding environment. Once one of the most beautiful waters in Asia, now the Citarum is a graveyard of debris, where locals, who can no longer fish, risk their lives scavenging for bottles and anything else they might sell for a small profit.
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This article is quite apropos: http://bitsandpieces1.blogspot.com/2007/06/too-many-fish-in-sea.html
The river is covered downstream with dead fish. (And a disgusting sludge…)
[...] I don’t consider myself a ‘hardcore environmentalist,’ but I’m not sure there’s anyone on the planet who wouldn’t agree that this is absurd. [...]
[...] sea of garbage, citarum indonesia [...]
For those too ignorant to understand the situation I would like to help you take your first step away from delusion. These products in the water are not simply a direct result of any Indonesian usage and irresponsible discarding, but rather trash-mainly plastic-from all over the world that is carried about the ocean surface by the various currents. A simple google search can yield many results on the topic. Check out the trash accumulated by the North American Gyre that lay in the middle of the Pacific, far from any nation we could more easily blame it on. You must use your brains. The vast majority of the Indonesian population are far too poor to purchase the products contained in this waste in the first place. For those who blame it on the ignorance of a population I would agree, just not the Indonesian population. As far as the claim that this is a result of a corrupt government, I would like you to pick up a book or two and learn about the relationship between the Indonesian government and the US. Maybe another book on the history of Indonesia and their current degenerative situation brought on by the globalist policies of world powers. The fact is that no country on this planet can produce any successful policy or lack of, without the full support of the US and other world powers. For those who are angry that their ignorant rants were disposed of (I’m sure a few arrogant individuals are still holding fast to delusion), try turning that anger into embarrassment, then into a yearning to learn the truth so as to not make stupid ass comments in a public forum again.
Know before you speak.
Don’t blame the first world. And if you do, notice all the packaging in that clutter. If we sold products without boxes and bags, maybe they could find “treasures” in that soup easier. I’m just saying . . . and the guy in the fourth picture DOES has a cool hat.
Mmmmm smelly garbage.
Imagine how much money you could make by recycling this? I wonder if the fish evolve to eat it? Maybe they are forcing rapid evolution!!! Cool
This is quite sad…
However, I can guarantee that this is not the most polluted river in the world.
There are things that are worse than that. I have seen them.
Two years ago there was some issue with trash in Bandung, Indonesia. And trash were piled everywhere on the street side in the whole city.
Many places in many developing countries have similar issues too..
Well, In Chennai, India (The third largest city in India) has a river where the city drainage is dumped into directly and which drains into the beach. The river runs right in middle of the city. Reference : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooum_River . I always thought how beautiful Chennai would be if it were kept clean ( maybe like Venice or something) . PS: I am from Chennai.
where the hell does all that garbage come from?
Hey! There’s some good stuff there!
thats horrible and indonesia is spelled with an S unless I’m thinking of a different country that looks/sounds similar (at least phonetically)
When I first saw these pictures, I was so sad.
I’m think that we are all one.
I’d like to challenge anyone on this post to say that they didn’t contribute to this. Do YOU know where your garbage goes? Do you really? Do you know, without a doubt, that that garbage is not having an effect on the earth or any of its inhabitants? What about your wifi, cell phone, portable phone and other radio waves passing through all the people and you every day? How about your car? What about your plastic you didn’t get to recycle? That styrofoam cup you grab every day for coffee?
how can we speak of “lazy people” when we idly sit here in our cozy livingrooms in a country that can afford to hide its trash? Do you really know where YOUR trash goes and its effects?
There are some people out there who recycle “everything,” compost all of their organic waste, and throw out into landfills a fraction of the average westerner. There are so many ways to avoid this. Do you? I think before we lay blame elsewhere, we can take a good look at ourselves and see how we contribute to these matters, if not these in particular, perhaps the area the size of Texas in the ocean which is a dead zone due to plastic just sitting there out of currents. So, incredibly, sad.
But it’s so much fun to point the finger at someone else, isn’t it!?
It’s similar (though not nearly as bad) in the poor neighborhoods of the Dominican Republic and many other poor slums in developing countries; the garbage just falls down the hillsides near the tin box shanties, and washes up on the beaches around Santo Domingo. I noticed a large amount of clear plastic water bottles in the beach trash, a result of life, not greed – as the water isn’t good to drink. The comments about how people need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps are completely ignorant to the realities these people face because they do not have public services and utilities to manage these problems.
Exactly how much work would you do to get rid of your garbage, if you were not given access to waste services? Would you walk 7 miles each week, carrying your trash?
Most of the commenters need only shuttle the garbage across the threshold and I’m willing to bet some of them have complained about doing that chore before. They should feel lucky that the 2+ bags of trash they put out each week aren’t building up in their own backyards, because it’s definitely going somewhere. Out of sight, out of mind.
I hate people who say humans are a virus and such… If you hate life so much just go put a bullet in your head, your wasting everyones time with your need for attention.
I don’t give a shit that it was cold. It’s true, get over it, people are very different in this world, and circumstances makes for the bulk of your person. Go out there and make a difference instead of sitting home drinking wine and talking about your last trip to france.
Your the ones who point that shit out. And in my opinion shows your ignorance about the balance that each person has between the animal within and the conscious descision makers we are to be. Without that beast we are nothing but cold robotic beings that only think of effeciency, but that the beast with all of its passion can rapidly turn against all that we believe right.
Last point is you cannot expect that sending money or showing a select few how such machine works or anything of the like will resolve anything. People need to stand up for what they believe in and fight day in day out for these things. If a people as a whole do not stand together, than no matter how much money or how many engineers you will send, it will enevitably end in failure.
If they want these things to change, they will need to stop wanting to please the US by selling themselves and such. It’s not our fault some people can be bought, business is business period… No i’m not defending companies but i’m just against ignorance and greediness.
p.s.
Odd thing people tend to forget, the idea of nation as country and people with common goals are not part of most cultures.
I’m french btw, and just noticed some grammatical errors…
I have to agree that the Western culture is responsible for this because we want everything as cheap as possible. We were the countries who went from glass bottles to plastic and we propagated that all over the world. Everyone sees the life we have on TV and how easy we have it. Our entire culture is based upon disposable items such as swiffers, electronics, cars and anything else that can be put into our minds as a WANT (not need).
These Indonesians would have been better off not hearing of Coke, Pepsi or Hershey. The US doesn’t look too much different than that in some places I’ve been so don’t be too condescending when you look at those pics because I don’t think you’ve seen some of the stuff we have done to our backyards. Based on some of the comments I’ve read here, these words are falling on deaf ears though – xenophobic attitudes seem to prevail in the US these days.
haha, that’s really bad.. it’s actually in the citarum river, not citarium.. also, it’s spelled indonesia anyway… haha..
Should bring up some interesting life forms in the future.
I am a die hard capitalist enviro pig
and this disgusts even me
how did this all get there?
Wait, am I supposed to feel sad? All I see is a river where a bunch of lazy people dumped their garbage in.
…and that’s just the trash that floats! I bet the intrepid divers over there make a killing!
For the people who are saying this is their fault and can’t understand how a 3rd world country could do this to their own land, etc, don’t be so quick to judge…
My favorite comment was something to the effect that they’re lazy and need to do something like landiflls or something—that is all another industrialized nation’s trash! Are you kidding me?! Does anyone think an impoverished country could possibly produce that much trash!? Where would they get the money to be good little consumers like you and me? They’re scavaging for F**k’s sake!
Wake up people, this is likely YOUR trash and if anyone needs to stop being lazy it’s us… otherwise we just keep adding to the problem…
“Modern” societies sell trash to 3rd world countries ALL THE TIME. Stop blaming these poor saps and take a hard look in the mirror—are you doing all you can to reduce your carbon imprint? Next time you just toss out an empty water bottle stop for a tic and ask yourself if you can refill it, use it someother way, and if not you damn sure better put it in an appropriate recycling bin…
RECYCLE
REDUCE
REUSE
And to the idiot who said this is photoshoped… do you huff paint? Do the world a favor and remove yourself from the gene pool.
I find it hilarious the way half of these comments shrug off the responsibility like it’s not their fault because they live on the other side of the planet.
The truth is, everyone who has commented on this blog has contributed to the illegal dumping of E-Waste into Africa and other third world countries.
I find it enormously humorous and a bit sad to see all the comments about how it is entirely the Western world’s fault that there is trash floating in this body of water in Indonesia. I also think it’s hilarious to see the number of arrogant, self-righteous people telling others to “use their brains” and to “educate yourself” by reading lots of books about the history of Indonesia and how it was blindly pawned into the evil capitalistic scheme of multi-national corporations and the Western world.
Give the Indonesians some credit for their own problems and messes… they’re not quite as daft, stupid, and clueless as you indirectly suggest that they are. Folks like you have one response to any environmental disaster here on this earth… “it’s the Western world’s fault” and “how dare we sit in our cozy McMansions and drive our gas-powered SUV’s and not feel guilty and awful about ourselves.” If you want to do something about the garbage in 3rd world countries, do us all a favor and go ahead, move there, and do something about it. That way, maybe something will get done about these messes and we won’t have to hear your ridiculous incessant screeching and whining about how we need to live like monks or grow our own vegetables or recycle our poop and food in steaming compost piles.
It’s everybody’s responsibility… just as it’s everybody’s responsibility when the Chinese need to open a new multi-megawatt coal-fired power plant every month.
The fact is that we all enjoy our Nike shoes, consumer electronics, low cost clothing, random promotional tat, and everything else which comes out of the cheap labour in Indonesia and the Far-East. It’s sad, but the consumer society of the west, and with it our economic strength, would not be sustainable unless people in other parts of the world were willing to turn a blind eye to this rape of the environment.
That doesn’t make these people “ignorant” of what they’re doing… but they have no other resources to live on, and by providing an economic driving force for them to ignore their better judgement, the responsibility lies with us.
This sickens me and saddens me.
@john
You arrogant asshole. Fuck you. Who do you think you are to talk to everyone like that?
@cHuk
And fuck you too. I did NOT contribute to the “dumping of E-Waste into Africa”. By that logic I’ve also contributed to the killings in Darfur, North Korea, and Iraq and the raping of women in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Seoul, Mexico City, etc.
You’re a fool.
So, whose work shooting and/or collecting these photos are you stealing to generate AdSense money this time?
Such passion in some of the comments. It does make me have hope, for the world.
I live in Indonezia [sic], and can testify to the accuracy of the photos above. It is unfortunately common throughout the vast archipelago, once a beautiful place but no longer. Someone above commented that the plastic in the river is the least concern, and it is. Rivers, and I use the word in the ‘loosest’ possible sense, are open sewers, contaminated with shit and dumped chemicals. The poor fuckers above are recyclers, who save this sorry nation from being totally submerged in crap. The vast majority of the waste is generated from local manufacturing and consumption. What the picture doesn’t show is that only a small amount of plastic makes it into the river system – the bulk is simply burnt, adding to the perpetual haze already generated from burning rainforests.
Who is to blame? Indonesia and its corrupt government of course. However, the West, particularly the original colonialists the Dutch, and most recently the USA started it all. In 1965 the CIA overthrew the government and installed a pro-business regime led by Suharto (Soeharto). This dictator and mass murderer ruled the country with an iron fist for 32 years and his lasting legacy has been one of corruption, weak government institutions, little infrastructure and poverty. Multinationals and the ruling Indonesian elite, meanwhile, have bled the country dry. Sad but true.
[...] I’d think twice before going for a swim [...]
Wow. A whole lot of ignorance in these comments. Some posters have already addressed some misconceptions, but here’s a complete, one-stop-shopping rebuttal to the idiocy that has been spewed onto this thread:
1) These pictures aren’t photoshopped.
2) This isn’t the result of lazy people dumping their garbage. 20 years ago, the Citarum River provided a living for hundreds of fishermen. What happened between then and now is that more than 500 factories were built along the banks of the river.
3) The people there don’t choose to live in filth. Most of those factories were built back when environmental activists in Indonesia wound up floating in the Citarum River. Even now, the government is almost completely unaccountable to the people.
4) Yes, you ARE partly responsible for this. The 500+ factories that created this waste ship products to the West and throughout Asia. Check all your clothes and the various gadgets around your house. Anything made in Indonesia? For just about everybody reading this, the answer is yes.
5) Indonesia is not a socialist country. It has low taxes, provides few public services, and virtually no regulations that protect worker safety, product safety, the environment, or union organizers. Its economic policies would most accurately be described as “libertarian” or “laissez-faire capitalist”.
6) The garbage is not the result of a flood. The river is like that every day.
To Camdog and Gordo:
I am very grateful to you for offering a reality check to those of us out here. Although my post was more philosophical and abstract because I didn’t have the facts, we all agree on the fact that we can’t assume that it’s “other people’s fault.” I’m actually just happy to know what happened. At least, i think I do, if I accept your explanations as the truth. It makes sense to me.
Heal yourself, heal the world.
Thanks again!
This river near the capital of Jakarta is a by product of Industrialization, a force that brought and England and the United states to the forefronts of the Global Economy. The question is why haven’t policies and health and dumping standards been put into place? Indonesia only jumped on the industrial “band wagon” in 1980, so maybe this is a much needed wake-up call for some restructuring of neglected polices.
If you all remember history, the USA at one time threw the garbage out the window into the city streets. People finally got sick of it, and the diseases that it brought that garbage trucks were made. Sanitation control is a product of a post-industrialized nation not one that is in the process of it. If you want something to happen than go there and do it. Get a group of people who can help and clean it up, make new laws in the country and have them learn about how important it is to keep the rivers clean. Words do not do a damn thing actions do.
Reply to rrs quote blaming this on “the ignorance of an impoverished and obviously uneducated and lazy society?”
You should be ashamed of yourself…or maybe you’re just too lazy and uneducated to inform yourself. American’s are probably the worst. Just because we don’t see it doesn’t mean we’re not dirty assed bastards. Check out our very own “sea of garbage” the size of Texas:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/oceans/la-me-ocean2aug02,0,3130914.story
The difference is that in Indonesia there is someone with a cool hat cleaning up a little bit.
@ Chris aka “not the moron above”…
It’s not so much my high opinion of myself that leads me to make comments like that, but rather my ever declining opinion of the ignorant assholes who roam the earth. I am assuming you include yourself in this group by the way you’ve included yourself into the “everyone” category instead of taking the time to research whether I was right or not.
By the way, you are responsible for the situations in Darfur, North Korea, and Iraq, as well as the plight of raped women all over the world. To think you are not implies a deeply rooted sense of arrogance and an extreme lack of education. Don’t worry though Chris aka “not the moron above”, I am also responsible for the same things. The fact is, being part of an affluent society predetermines our role in the world to a certain extent. From that breaking point we have to make a choice of which direction we will continue on. Some of us have taken major steps to educate ourselves and our communities, thus encouraging an end to this behavior and making true ethical choices possible. Sadly I believe most of us are what Ward Churchill refers to as “little Eichman’s”. If you don’t know the meaning behind that, I suggest you look at it very closely.
I’ll refer back to my previous suggestion . Try turning your anger into embarrassment, then into a yearning to learn the truth so as to not make stupid ass comments in a public forum again.
Know before you speak.
Too little, too late, This planet is beyond healing now. We’re all DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!!!!!!!!!
For anyone living in a western (or so called developed country) to think that this is somehow not their fault should wake up. Ignorance is not bliss in this case.
In an attempt to ‘keep up’ with the industrialised world, developing nations put the environment way down on a list of priorities, instead ramping up pollution producing production lines so that you, in a nice clean supermarket thousands of miles away can buy that asian toy on the cheap.
This is globalisation people – and it ain’t pretty. When you, as the westerner demand lower prices, you don’t just demand lower prices – you allow corporations to treat the developing world like shit, and thus treat their environment like shit.
Remember, people don’t choose to be poor – they are allowed to be – by the western world. It disgusts me to read comments like ‘indonesian lazy bastards’ or ‘its not humanity, its just the pigs in indonesia’. Yet I remind myself that those ignorant bastards who wrote such filth, are the pigs of the world. Try giving a damn about recycling when you struggle to get a plate of food on the table every night. Once again, this is a connected world. Corporate greed is driving a wedge deeper and deeper between the rich and the poor and the majority of people in western countries are too stifled by air conditioning to realise.
ok so i agree whole heartedly with Awake, but mick is also right. there is nothing that we can do at this point, the pollution spread by the human disease has far exceeded our ability to reverse our actions. all we have now is to wait for the end of the earth. the pollution on the surface is exactly that, only the surface. the air pollution is steadily on the rise and there is nothing we can do about it. even if the U.S. (the “educated” of the world) can take a minute to remove our heads from our a**es how is it that we will be able to stop the other 5 or 6 billion people form using oil and machinery that causes green house gases? we should have noticed it yesterday, no…f*** yesterday, how about two decades ago. by now the global climate is just going to heat until life is stifled, and unachievable. the one or two out of twenty U.S. citizens that actually recycle still doesn’t prevent the masses from demanding their cheap prices and bulk products. anyway wtf is the use? everyone is to ignorant, including myself. in my case ignorance IS bliss, if it wasn’t I’d have to worry about raising a son in a world that isn’t probably going to last long enough for him to live out his life.
Just tell the Chinese that there is oil in it and it burns! they’ll send a trawler out, and next xmas they’ll be sendig it to the US as toys! Sometimes humans can’t see the trees for the forest!
es como un mar del crap
fake lol
you morans need to do sum reserch
Tyranus: I love you <3
Wow, i was wondering where all those beer bottles went after my college parties…
Indonesian Fetishists Looking For Used Sanitary Products
people that have no sense throw garbage in rivers they are jackasses!!!
Now, now that is a lot of trash!! we, people should be responsible in taking care of our planet because this is we live in imagine that all of these trashes go to we get our food, In the ocean! where else? all of the garbege juices that the fishes eat in and absorb to their bodies are what we also humans eat! and the land animals that fiest on garbage are also the ones that we eat isnt it grose that we also eat the trash that we thow!!
attention to all people let us help our land it is worth saving just like your own life!
the bridge has no use! the people there don’t know how to take care of the mother earth! and if some one will go there and clean it, he/she will get killed.
if this guy believe that the photo is photoshopped, better he may take a look on google earth. i already saw that because its really hard to believe, but that’s the sad true….it is real. all the trash are stucked at the end of the river!!