Rotterdam port to reward clean initiatives

DutchNews, December 5, 2016

Rotterdam port authority is now ready to invest in companies which are actively reducing CO2 emissions or which do not use fossil fuels in production at all, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Monday.

Rottterdam seaport, the largest in Europe, is also home to one of the continent’s largest petrochemical complexes accounting for 18% of greenhouse gases emitted each year in the Netherlands. In order to meet the requirements of the Paris climate accord, Co2 emissions must be reduced by 90% by 2050, also in the port.

‘When it comes to crucial investment, we are willing to take an active, risk-bearing role in companies striving towards this goal,’ Allard Castelein, director of Rotterdam port authority, told the FD. Until now the port authority has used its annual €200m investment budget largely for infrastructure, like roads and quays. 

‘There’s going to be a change,’ says Castelein, although he did not go into numbers. He said there was considerable freedom over investments agreed by the port’s shareholders, Rotterdam council and the national government. Incentives for new investment could include lower ground rents, the paper noted. 

A case in point is a possible €180m methanol plant being developed by a group headed by Akzo Nobel. ‘We are willing to buy a stake of 20% in the plant if it comes to Rotterdam,’ says Castelein. The port authority is also looking into a pipeline to transfer surplus industrial heat to the nearby Westland greenhouse area and to The Hague. 

But Castelein will not go so far as to ban companies with high CO2 emissions in the future. ‘Cleaner and more efficient production here will contribute to the global reduction of Co2 emissions,’ he told the paper. 

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Spanish island to be fully powered by wind, water

Yahoo – AFP, Katell Abiven, 28 April 2014

Wind turbines are pictured near the upper reservoir of the Gorona power
station on El Hierro island on March 28, 2014

The smallest and least known of Spain's Canary Islands, El Hierro, is making a splash by becoming the first island in the world fully energy self-sufficient through combined water and wind power.

A wind farm opening at the end of June will turn into electricity the gusts that rake the steep cliffs and green mountains of the volcanic island off the Atlantic coast of Africa.

Its five turbines installed at the northeastern tip of El Hierro near the capital Valverde will have a total output of 11.5 megawatts -- more than enough power to meet the demand of the island's roughly 10,000 residents and its energy-hungry water desalination plants.

The lower reservoir and hydropower station

 at the Gorona power station on El Hierro

 island on March 28, 2014. (Photo by

Desiree Martin/ AFP)

Although other islands around the world are powered by solar or wind energy, experts say El Hierro is the first to secure a constant supply of electricity by combining wind and water power and with no connection to any outside electricity network.

Surplus power from the wind turbines will be used to pump fresh water from a reservoir near the harbour to a larger one at volcanic crater located about 700 metres (2,300 feet) above sea level.

When there is little or no wind, the water will be channelled down to the lower reservoir through turbines to generate electricity in turn.

"This system guarantees us a supply of electricity," said the director of the Gorona del Viento wind power plant, Juan Manuel Quintero who is supervising final tests before the plant starts functioning in a few weeks.

Emplyees work in the pump room at

 the Gorona power station on El Hierro

\ island on March 28, 2014. (Photo by

Desiree Martin/ AFP)

The plant will account for 50 percent of the island's electricity demand when it is officially inaugurated at the end of June, a figure that will rise to 100 percent over the following months.

The scheme will cut carbon dioxide emissions by 18,700 tonnes per year and eliminate the island's annual consumption of 40,000 barrels of oil.

El Hierro will maintain its fuel oil power station as a back up, just in case.

'World pioneer'

The island is cited as a pioneering project by IRENA, the international organisation for renewable energy, and other experts such as Alain Gioda, a climate historian at France IRD science research institute.

"The true novelty of El Hierro is that technicians have managed, without being connected to any national network, to guarantee a stable production of electricity, that comes 100 percent from renewable energy, overcoming the intermittent nature of the wind," he said.

A Turbogenerator set (L) and a lubrication

 (blue) at the Gorona power station on

 El Hierro island on March 28, 2014.

(Photo by Desiree Martin/ AFP)

El Hierro's wind power plant has sparked interest from other islands seeking to follow its example.

Officials from Aruba, Hawaii, Samso in Denmark, Oki in Japan, and Indonesia have all shown interest.

"It is a project which is considered at the world level as a pioneer and it is one of the most important in the production of renewable energy," said the president of island's local council, Alpidio Armas.

"El Hierro can be a sort of laboratory," he added, providing an example to other islands around the world which are home to around 600 million people.

El Hierro, the westernmost of Spain's Canary Islands, has also been invited to present its project at several international conferences, including in Malta and South Korea.

Electric vehicles

El Hierro wants to extend its environmental credentials even further by ensuring that by 2020 all of its 6,000 vehicles are run on electricity thanks to an agreement with the Renault-Nissan alliance.

A recharging point for electric vehicles at

 the Gorona power station on El Hierro

 island on March 28, 2014. (Photo by

Desiree Martin/ AFP)

The wind power plant cost 80 million euros ($110 million) to build.

The island authorities own 60 percent of the plant, with 30 percent held by Spanish energy company Endesa -- a subsidiary of Italian group Enel -- and 10 percent by a local technology institute.

"We wanted to be the owners of the majority of the plant. That means that the profits as well as the possible losses, that is the destiny of Gorona del Viento, is the responsibility of the residents of the island," said Armas.

Revenues from the plant will boost the island's budget by about one to three million euros per year, he said.

"These are revenues that can go to the local residents, to subsidise water prices, infrastructure, social policies," he said.

El Hierro, designated by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve with 60 percent of its territory of 278 square kilometres (107 square miles) protected to preserve its natural diversity, also hopes its green energy drive will draw visitors interested in nature and science.

"We cannot turn down the benefits that tourism brings, but we don't want mass tourism," said Armas.

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Key river suffers upstream, downstream pollution

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 12/11/2009 11:16 AM

Up a creek without a paddle: A survey team motors through the Citarum River estuary in Muara Gembong district, Bekasi. Despite frequent tidal floods, the river bank is home to many people who come from around the country to earn a living as fishermen. The Citarum River has often been called the world’s dirtiest river. Courtesy of Cita-Citarum/Diella Dachlan

Despite the country’s ambitious plans to provide sustainable access to clean water for 80 percent of the urban population by 2015, its capital is still struggling to fix an enduring problem facing one of its key rivers.

The target, set in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), starkly contrasts with the fact that the Citarum River, one of the most vital sources of drinking water for Jakarta, is often referred to as the world’s dirtiest river.

Saiful, the new chairman of the Association of Indonesian Tap Water Companies (Perpamsi), said last Thursday in Batam only 40 percent of the urban population and less than 30 percent of the rural population had sustainable access to clean water.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) stated the Citarum River Basin Territory supported a population of 28 million people, produced 20 percent of Indonesia’s gross domestic product and provided 80 percent of the surface water supply to the capital.

Director of the National Development Planning Agency’s directorate of water resources and irrigation, M. Donny Azdan, said the river, which flows 300 km from Mount Gunung Wayang in West Java to the Pantai Bahagia coast in Bekasi, faces a multitude of problems, which the country is trying to tackle.

“The problem upstream is erosion due to agriculture, which dumps a lot of soil into the river. [Further downstream] there’s also the contamination by farm, domestic and industrial waste that is dumped into the river,” he said.

The Majalaya area in West Java, for example, is home to many textile industries that pollute the river, he said during a river expedition Saturday.

The two-day expedition was set up by the Association of Jungle Explorers and Mountain Climbers (Wanadri).

The Citarum was once a familiar training and exploration area for the association, which conducted its first expedition there in 1985, Abrar Prasodjo, the head of the expedition, said.

“The river is necessary for our purposes. We wanted to conduct a training session in Saguling [West Java] but the water was foamy,” he recalled.

Abrar said the expedition was expected to provide new information that would be relayed to the authorities and the community who would take the necessary steps to improve the state of the river, thus allowing the association’s members and the residents to benefit from Citarum’s water.

One man’s garbage: A man wades in the Citarum River in the Majalaya area, West Java next to a garbage pile on the riverbank. The water is heavily contaminated by untreated waste from textile plants. Courtesy of Cita-Citarum/Steve Griffiths

The heavy pollution of the river is also evident in its estuary in Muara Gembong, Bekasi.

An area in Muara Gembong, ironically named Pantai Bahagia (Happy Beach), constantly suffers from tidal and other floods. The coastline, once thick with mangroves, is now the site of a fishing village where wooden boats have to navigate through a layer of rubbish.

“Its as if the ground sinks lower by 10 centimeters each year,” Erik, a resident, said of the increasingly serious floods.

Carsim, another resident who was in an elevated sitting space to avoid coming in contact with the dirty water, said around 20 years ago, the area had not been as crowded as it was now and the mangrove forest dominated the landscape.

Abrar said the constant destruction of the mangrove forest also endangered the area’s ecosystem.

“There used to be a lot of birds and monkeys here, but now the mangrove is very thin,” he said as the expedition team navigated the river.

Donny said the road to restore, or at least improve, the Citarum River was a long and rocky one.

“We calculate there are around 80 separate actions that need to be taken, which will take around 15 to 20 years to do. The cost would be around Rp 35 trillion, [US$3.7 billion]” he said.

Given this estimate and the fact that the country has over 5,000 rivers with eleven of them critically polluted, would fulfilling the MDG for clean water be realistic?

“No,” he said, laughing. “We’re having problems with just one river!” (dis)

Jakarta Bay Cleaned as City Commemorates World Fisheries Day

The Jakarta Globe

Students planting mangrove seedlings along the Jakarta Bay shoreline on Saturday. Nine million mangroves are scheduled to be planted over the next several months in an effort to protect coastal communities from rising seas and increasingly stronger tropical storms. (Reuters Photo)

In order to help save Jakarta Bay from environmental devastation, some 400 fishermen from the North Jakarta Fishermen’s Community Forum cleaned garbage from the waterway on Saturday in commemoration of World Fisheries Day.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said at the event, held at Festival Beach, Ancol, North Jakarta, that the pollution in Jakarta Bay had reached a critical level. He invited everyone to join together to help save the bay for the future.

“More people can feel a sense of belonging toward Jakarta Bay by preserving the environment. Jakarta Bay is not only an asset for the Jakarta government and Ancol, it belongs to every stakeholder, it belongs to every Jakartan,” said Fauzi.

The governor added that if people really wanted to save and preserve the environment, they should work together to save the bay, rather than just talking about it.

“We know the pollution of Jakarta Bay comes not only from the land — as there are many rivers flowing into Jakarta Bay — but also from the sea. Many boats and ships dump their trash [overboard] and pollute the bay, the monitoring is in the hands of all people,” he said.

Everyone, Fauzi said, should be actively involved in the preservation of the bay for its marine tourism potential.

“Let’s save Jakarta Bay together. Because it has the potential to support fishermen as well as Jakarta’s economy,” said the Governor, as he stood alongside North Jakarta Mayor Bambang Sugiyono.

Meanwhile, about 500 cyclists participated in a “Fun Bike” ride from the National Monument to Ancol, to mark the occasion.

Other activities are scheduled over the next few months to promote the importance of saving Jakarta’s marine environment, including the planting of 9 million mangrove trees at North Jakarta’s Angke Kapuk Restoration Area and the cleanup and improvement of the coral reef at Pramuka Island in the Thousand Islands by hundreds of professional divers.

Jakarta Bay suffers from heavy pollution that threatens the sustainability of mangrove forests and coral reefs.

The dramatic decrease in fish and other marine life threatens the livelihoods of fishermen as many residents continue to dump household and industrial waste into sewers, canals and rivers that eventually flow into the bay.

Antara

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Jakarta Bay pollution reaches critical level: Governor

Lack of marine tourism development criticized

The Jakarta Post, Sat, 02/28/2009 2:23 PM  |  Bali

 

DENPASAR: Chairman of the Bali branch of the Indonesian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), Gde Wiratha, criticized the Bali administration for the lack of development of marine tourism in the island province.

 

"Our undersea view is so beautiful and so interesting for everyone, and yet we have done nothing to try and sell it because of the lack of development in this particular market," Wiratha said Friday as quoted by Antara news agency.

 

He cited Benoa Harbor, the island's largest cruise ship port, which he said remained badly managed with dirty water left to flow out into the sea.

"The environment condition of the harbor cannot support underwater tourism, it bothers tourists, and rules have yet to be enforced properly there," he said.

 

Waste, sedimentation endanger Ambon Bay's coral reefs

M. Azis Tunny, The Jakarta Post, Ambon | Fri, 01/02/2009 10:29 AM

Severe sedimentation and pollution, especially from household waste, are slowly and surely degrading the marine environment in Ambon Bay.

To make matters worse, waste gathers in the bay area where it is trapped by the rapid tides.

According to studies conducted by the Ambon chapter of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), the ecological destruction in Ambon Bay is due to damage that is increasingly difficult to overcome or reverse.

The current development process, which ignores social and ecological aspects, has further worsened the area's condition.

Consequently, a number of marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, are facing further threats.

A researcher at the Ambon office of LIPI's Marine Biota Conservation Center (BKBL), Daniel Sapulette, told The Jakarta Post in Ambon recently that the underwater topography of Ambon Bay was unique because of the irregular water circulation process in the bay area.

"Not only waste, but everything gets trapped in the bay, including the exchange of fresher water from the open sea. The tidal movement is also rapid," Sapulette said.

Ali Mochtar, head of LIPI's Environmental Health Technical Center in Ambon, said it would be hard to restore Ambon Bay to its original condition.

One of the concerns, he said, was that the bay and its seabed could act as a garbage dump for all sorts of toxic waste.

Mochtar said a recent study conducted by his office found high concentrations of heavy metal almost exceeding tolerable levels in several locations.

"Mercury has accumulated around waters off Galala village," he said, adding the bay area could no longer support marine farming for local communities.

A high concentration of lead, reaching 15.28 mg/kg, has also been found in sediment around the fuel depot in Waiyame and the diesel power station in Galala, while lead has been found in the waters around the regional fishing port in Tantui.

The coastal ecosystem around Ambon Bay is facing damage from gradual sedimentation and waste, with coral reefs likely to suffer the most severe damage.

Comparable studies on the condition of coral reefs in 1985 and 2007 showed drastic changes, with 23.7 percent of reefs in Ambon Bay being damaged during that period.

For example, in 1985, there was coral reef coverage in 60 percent of the waters around Liliboy village, but by 2007 this had dropped to 28.4 percent.

A BKBL researcher at Ambon LIPI, Freddy Leatemia, said the main causes of the damage to the coral in Ambon Bay were sedimentation and pollution.

"In Ery village, for example, the coral reefs have been buried by organic and nonorganic waste, including electronic goods, such as television sets and radios," he said.

According to Leatimia, none of the coral reefs in Ambon Bay is in good condition, even though some are faring better than other coastal ecosystems, such as mangroves.

"Its existence will be at further risk if waste and sedimentation are not stopped now," said Leatimia, adding that residents were still dumping waste into the rivers that empty into the sea.

Deforestation to develop residential and commercial areas in Ambon city is also contributing to the alarming rate of environmental damage, especially of the marine ecosystem. The extent of the damage is particularly great given that Ambon is a small island of only 775 square kilometers of mostly hilly terrain.

Areas that previously acted as buffer zones and catchment areas, such as Air Besar, Kayu Putih and Bukit Lateri, have been converted into residential areas.

The clearing of forested areas, without due consideration of social and ecological aspects, has led to severe silting of the bay area from runoff carried to the sea during rain.

Hundreds get their hands dirty in Kuta beach clean-up

Andra Wisnu, The Jakarta Post, Kuta | Wed, 12/31/2008 10:50 AM  |  Bali

 

Hundreds of hotel employees got their hands dirty Saturday morning to remove the trash piling up on Kuta beach, although government officials remain skeptical that the build-up of trash on the beach -- due to seasonal rains -- will ever stop.

 

In a clean-up campaign initiated by the Kuta district chief and the Badung regent, the hotel employees collected glass, plastic and paper (as well as seaweed and stray branches) that has collected on the shores of Kuta beach.

 

The frustration among the volunteers was apparent, as they remain helpless against preventing the build up of trash in Kuta. During the rainy season, trash washes down from inland rivers and covers the beach's southern and eastern shores.

 

"We're cleaning up because this is related to our income as hoteliers. Tourists won't want to come to Bali anymore if this disgusting condition continues," one hotel employee, who was picking up branches in the shore, said.

 

"It's so ugly and it's so bad for business. But this is all I can do to keep Kuta clean," another hotel employee said.

 

The campaign was initiated to assist the official Kuta beach task force, which is in charge of keeping Kuta beach clean. The beach's numerous peddlers often take it upon themselves to keep their main source of their income trash free.

 

This year has been so bad though that, even after the Badung regent deployed hundreds of trash trucks to take away the refuse, it continues to pile up on the coastline.

 

The curling waves are turning brown from plastic, sediment and other refuse littering the water.

 

Badung Regent Anak Agung Gde Agung, who was present during the clean-up campaign, said he regretted that the trash continued to pile up this year, though he blamed the occurrence on "natural phenomenon" and said that it hadn't significantly affected the island's tourism industry.

 

"We haven't had that many complaints because this is now a natural phenomena, it's the strong winds that carry the trash from the deeper areas of the sea onto the shore," he said.

 

He further blamed fishermen, who throw dead fish back into the sea, for stinking up the beach.

 

"The smell from the rotting fish is making the smell worse than all the trash build-up and is truly regretful," he said.

 

Head of the Bali Tourism Board Ngurah Wijaya said he had talked with the regents from each area in an effort to prevent citizens from littering.

 

"However, this is in the hands of each regent so I cannot guarantee that it won't happen again next year.

 

"In fact, I'm pretty sure this is going to happen again next year," he said.

 

Meanwhile, tourists spending their day in Kuta on Monday expressed nothing but disappointment at the less than savory condition of the beach.

 

"It's literally the dirtiest beach ever," said Sherrie McKibben, 50, a tourist from Ohio who had spent years living in Surabaya and holidaying in Bali.

 

"And it's a big problem, because this beach is the face of Indonesia and I don't think tourists would ever come here again if this continues," she said, adding that she planned to spend her holiday in Ubud.

 

Noah Dwyer-Voss, 15, a tourist from California, said he didn't mind the stench but would not consider swimming in the water due to the high amount of trash.

 

"It's just annoying to be playing in the beach, and then you got plastic floating next to you," he said.

 

Arif Yudhi, 22, a student who was vacationing from Magelang, Central Java, was surprised to see the famous Kuta beach this dirty.

 

"This is my first time and I've got to say this is not how I imagined it to be," he said.)

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Tarakan island looks to Bali for its tourism development

The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Wed, 12/17/2008 11:13 AM  

The Bali Tourism Board (BTB) recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Tarakan municipality administration to increase awareness of the island as a tourist destination, including by advertising the location in Bali's promotional forays, such as websites, road shows and in brochures. 

"The potential for tourism in Tarakan may well complement Bali's tourism industry and other tourism spots in Indonesia," BTB spokesperson Sang Putu Subaya told The Jakarta Post during a visit to Tarakan. 

READY FOR BUSINESS: East Kalimantan’s Juwata International Airport is expected to boost development of Trarakan Island’s tourism industry. A memorandum of understanding has just been signed with the Bali Tourism Board in its bid to increase awareness of the island as a tourist destination. (JP/Wasti Atmodjo)

"The more varied and numerous our offers, the more interested tourists become in visiting Indonesia," he said. 

Tarakan is approximately a third the size of Singapore and is home to 180,000 year rounders. 

The slogan "Little Singapore", which was pushed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during his visit to Tarakan, derives from the island's original function as a transit point for people entering and exiting Indonesia. 

Tarakan's municipal administration has imposed some of Singapore's stringent hygiene regulations, including a strict waste-disposal system that requires that residents separate organic from inorganic garbage. 

The island last year won the Adipura award for excellence in environmental management. 

To support a surge in tourist numbers, the administration has built a 45-kilometer road that recalls Jakarta's famous Thamrin boulevard as well as the newly completed Juwata International Airport. 

The Bali Tourism Board has said it will promote Tarakan in international events such as the annual Bali Arts Festival, which runs from June to July every year, and assist in developing the island's tourism workforce by training tourist guides and restaurant staff. 

I Gede Putu Erawati of the Bali chapter of the Association of Indonesian Travel Agencies (ASITA), said Tarakan was similar to Bali in terms of cultural attraction. 

She listed a number of potential tourist attractions on the island, including the Round House -- a defensive structure built by the Australian armed forces; the Japanese Crematory Monument, Loghraf (an air-raid bunker) and the Tidung tribe traditional home. 

"The promotions must be as inviting as possible, including prices, because Tarakan is a relatively new destination despite its legacy of being a transit port to the Kalimantan region," Erawati said. 

She said Tarakan was also like Bali in that it had beautiful sand beaches -- including Amal Lama and Amal Baru, adding that they were a crucial element in the tourism development plan, and could be incorporated into projects such as the planned Waterboom park. 

Furthermore, the island's mangrove forests, its resident bekantan (a species of monkey) and the Karungan waterfall could be developed into major attractions for tourists seeking natural surroundings. 

And if Tarakan is not enough, she said, tourists can visit the Derawan islands -- a world class diving destination home to 347 known species of marine wildlife and 222 types of coral, which is a two-and-a-half-hour boat ride from Tarakan. 

"The sightseeing is incredible, the cleanliness is impeccable, the seafood is amazing and the accommodation is ready. Now all they need is proper packaging for all these tourist attractions," Erawati said. 

She said Tarakan could become an alternative destination when Bali was overcrowded during peak season. 

"Most tourists who cannot find accommodation in Bali get re-routed to Yogyakarta or Lombok. Tarakan in this sense can become a new destination partner for Bali," she said. 

She said for the island to succeed as a tourist destination, airlines must launch new direct routes linking the island to Bali. 

Currently, passengers traveling between the islands must connect in Balikpapan and Surabaya. 

Mandala Airlines Public Relations officer, Luna Margareth, said her airline was already in talks to launch a direct service. 

Tarakan Mayor Jusuf S.K. said he hoped his administration's cooperation with BTB would help navigate Tarakan into the international spotlight. 

"I hope this will become more than just a cooperation in promotions, but also a lesson in how we can manage this city and improve ourselves by providing world class services," he said.