Jakarta (ANTARA News) - About 60-70 percent of the rivers in Indonesia are contaminated by domestic or household wastes, a deputy of Pollution Control at the Ministry of Environment M.R. Karliansyah stated here on Tuesday.

"60 percent of the domestic wastes infiltrate the trunks of the rivers, and as many as 6.1 percent of the wastes are recyclable," he affirmed.

Although the amount of industrial wastes infiltrating the rivers has been reduced to nearly 56 percent, yet the huge load of household wastes still continues to pollute the rivers.

"As long as the household wastes continue to be dumped into the rivers, they will never be clean," he pointed out.

Contaminated river trunks will affect human health and the access to clean water.

Moreover, most of the people living along the rivers used them for their daily activities.

The implementation of the business-performance rating program (Proper) has led to a drop in river pollution levels due to industrial activity, remarked Karliansyah.

"We can prove the capability of Proper in reducing environmental pollution, especially liquid organic wastes," he emphasized.

Proper is one of the ministrys efforts to encourage the compliance of companies in environmental management through the instrument of information.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2014