The epidemic is still raging in many countries around the world, and people can only "cloud travel" and "cloud vacation". According to the British "Daily Mail" reported on February 4, without tourists, the famous beach in Bali, Indonesia, has become a garbage dump. Kuta Beach and Jimbaran Beach, which have always been crowded with tourists, are now like abandoned "ghost towns", full of bottles, pockets and plastics rushed up from the sea. Tons of garbage are piled up higher than the beach chairs where tourists used to lie in the sun, and it doesn't look like a leisurely resort for tourists.
Bali Beach, covered in plastic garbage, is the Daily Mail
Indonesia is one of the "biggest contributors" to marine plastic pollution. According to nature communications in 2017, Indonesia has 200,000 tons of plastic waste entering the ocean every year.
During the rainy season from December to March, monsoons and torrential rains send the sea garbage ashore. However, according to locals, this year's situation is worse than in previous years. As much as 30 to 60 tons of garbage needs to be removed from these beaches every day.
Local authorities are working hard to clean up every day, but the garbage continues to increase. "We assign people, trucks and excavators every day." Wayan Puja, an environment and sanitation department worker in Denpasar, the capital of Bali Province, said the influx of garbage looked endless. In recent months, they have sometimes spent a day cleaning up 30 tons of garbage, only to return to the beach the next day only to find that the garbage had risen to 60 tons.
Bali Beach Daily Mail
It is reported that the washing of garbage ashore is related to the local climate, which is the case every year, but the situation is getting worse.
In addition, local resorts often pay for cleaning armies that constantly take out trash from the beach. But the COVID-19 pandemic has shut foreign tourists out of Indonesia, severely undermining the local economy, which is almost entirely dependent on foreign tourists. The number of tourists has fallen by as much as 95%, and the Indonesian government estimates that the local tourism industry will lose up to $14 billion in 2020. The entire tourism industry faces difficulties in survival. Many hotels no longer hire people to clean up the garbage.
Dr. Gede Hendrawan, director of the Center for Telesensory and Marine Sciences at Udayana University in Indonesia, pointed out that the biggest problem is the efficiency of Indonesia's waste disposal system, and Bali and Java are only now beginning to realize this problem.
In response, Bali Governor Wayan Koster urged serious beach clean-up operations, equipped with adequate equipment and manpower, especially "during the rainy season, tourists should operate 24 hours a day, not until the next day." ”
Domestic tourists on the beach said they were disappointed to see piles of garbage. But for re-attracting tourists and reinvigorating the local tourism economy, Governor Koster remains optimistic, saying he will "advance a series of policies to regain the trust of tourists and allow them to return to Bali again." ”
Red Star News reporter Lin Rong
Edited by Guo Yu
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