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Image: Local community trying to clean up the estuary. Credit. Facebook. Dreamland Warung

Badung Environmental and Sanitation Department (DLHK) has admitted that they have difficulties handling the trash that has accumulated at the Dreamland beach estuary on the Bukit’s west coast, south Bali.

The Head of Badung DLHK, I Putu Eka Merthawan, told the press yesterday that there are difficulties getting the trash out. Trucks and loaders cannot enter because there is no access into the estuary area and if they do it manually, it will take a lot of time and will need a lot of manpower. The trash is piling up at the estuary, because it comes down through the Cemongkak River and from the sea.

“There is no evacuation point and the estuary depth is approximately two meters. If we use manpower, it would waste much time and we need to be extra careful. That small pond was formed from the rubbish piled up at the estuary mouth,” Merthawan said on Monday.

Merthawan explained the pool of water is a natural phenomenon caused by the ebb and flow of the tide that creates a wall and a basin.  The sand at the end of the still river keep rising and form a basin which contains the water from rains and the sea. When the tide was high, trash came and piled into the pond. “When the tide ebbs, the trash is stuck in the lake,” he said to nusabali.com. [We also imagine the trash is coming down the river from the rains as mentioned above. Ed]

His department arranged a meeting on Sunday with all of the Pecatu Village authorities. The Pecatu Village Chief, Pecatu custom village, LPM, Pecatu BPD and the Dreamland trading community were all involved. The plan is now to set up the location as a new tourism area. They plan to install a barrier to prevent the trash coming to the lake. Besides that, they will build rubbish evacuation paths. They want to design the estuary pond into a fishing location. And just for good measure they want to build an attractive fountain.

For the short term solution, they will build a path on the left and the right side of the pond to be able to pick up the rubbish and also for tourism purposes.

There are other beaches that face the same rubbish problems, like Labuansait, Padang-Padang, Karang Boma, and Nyang-nyang beaches.