The Bahagia River in Indonesia is a unique one where water is not visible. This is because of large-scale pollution most of which is plastic. The plastic waste kept accumulating over a period of time and the authorities are determined to clean the waterway. They have deployed workers who are working alongside willing residents to collect the trash. Cleaning of the clogged river It is a mammoth operation. Most of the waste is domestic but Indonesia is one of the countries in Southeast Asia that accepts trash from western countries. There is now a global concern over this state of affairs after images of waste-clogged rivers surfaced.

Daily Mail UK reports that police and military personnel are involved in the activities that have been taken up on a war footing. A section of locals also joined in. They volunteered to help and chipped in with their own methods. They collected the trash and arranged to move it out. On a rough estimate there is at least of 400 tonnes of garbage in the Bahagia River in Indonesia.

It is a struggle for Indonesia

In the opinion of officials, the trash flowed downstream and into the Bahagia River.

The cleaning exercise is complicated and a long-drawn process because there are people who live on the banks. They have built their shacks, hence it makes it difficult to bring in heavy machinery. It all finally boils down to manual work. Heavy equipment could enter the scene at a later stage. Its purpose would be to dredge silt from the river.

Daily Mail UK explains that non-bio degradable domestic waste has accumulated on the surface of the one-mile long water body.

These consist of polystyrene, plastic bags, and bottles. Jakarta used to import waste from outside and it has increased their monitoring. The intention is to control the dumping. China used to accept scrap plastic from outside but it has discontinued the practice since last year because it wants to clean up its Environment. This has resulted in diversion of such material to other destinations in Southeast Asia. Plastic Pollution is an international crisis since the waste ends up in landfills or pollute the seas and endangers marine lives.

Bahagia River in Bekasi is Indonesia's 'Happy River'

According to The Sun UK, Indonesia has drafted its soldiers to assist in clearing the Bahagia River. The river, also known as Indonesia's 'Happy River,' falls in the category of one of the world's most polluted stretches of water.

It is overflowing with plastic waste and other rubbish dumped by the locals. Plastic is non-biodegradable and harmful to the environment and its pollution has spread to every corner of the Earth. The amount of this material produced in the world runs into millions of tonnes and includes volumes of single-use items.

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