Paddling plastic bottle canoes in the most polluted river in the world

[Glenn MacGrady]

So, maybe we should have a CanoeTripping Rendezvous on the Citarum River in West Java, Indonesia.

Seriously, plastic pollution is a worldwide mega-evil, and not just in rivers and the oceans where we paddle. There are now microplastics in much of our food and in the cells of our bodies.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Some still images of the Citarum River.

 

[Gamma1214]

Wow. I don't think I'd trust my Platypus to clean that up sufficiently. Probably have to take bottled water...

 

[Alan Gage]

Not that it makes it any more pleasant but I find myself wondering how much of the river looks like that. Is it the whole thing or do these photos concentrate on some small backwater eddies where it collects?

Alan

 

[Woodpuppy]

Astounding.

 

[recped]

Not that it makes it any more pleasant but I find myself wondering how much of the river looks like that. Is it the whole thing or do these photos concentrate on some small backwater eddies where it collects?

Alan

I wondered the same thing, one can't tell from a picture if a river is "polluted" but the pictures I saw from further upstream did not have all that trash.


Headwaters at Citarum Lake, 270km from the mouth of the river.

According to Wikipedia there are about 5 Million people who live along the river (probably responsible for most of the floating garbage) but the real polluter is the huge textile industry which flushes endless amounts of effluent into the river. Sadly these massive textile plants are located just 5km downstream of the headwaters lake with more of them spread along the length of the river.