West Bandung Regency Deploys 4 Pontoons to Clean Eceng Gondok in Ciminyak

BANDUNG - The West Bandung Regency Government (Pemkab) West Java has deployed four pontoon boats and two heavy equipment to clean the water hyacinth in the Ciminyak Bridge area, Cililin, as the initial stage of weed handling in the Saguling Reservoir.

The Regent of West Bandung Jeje Ritchie Ismail said that the deployment of the equipment was carried out so that the cleaning process would be more effective and not take too long.

"For the cleaning of this water hyacinth in Saguling, especially Ciminyak, if it is done manually it will take a very long time. Later it will be assisted by about four pontoons," he said as reported by ANTARA, Monday, June 29.

He said the cleaning of the water hyacinth was also aimed at reducing the impact of the increasing population of mosquitoes that had been complained about by residents, in addition to restoring the activity of the floating net cage and maintaining the cleanliness of the reservoir area.

The Ciminyak Bridge area was chosen as the initial location for cleaning because it was one of the points with a fairly dense distribution of water hyacinth.

Based on the mapping results, water hyacinth covers about 120 hectares of the total area of the Saguling Reservoir of around 5,000 hectares and is spread over seven points.

Jeje said that the handling of the water hyacinth was carried out through collaboration with Indonesia Power UBP Saguling, TNI, Polri, Citarum River Basin Office, local government, and the community because the problem could not be solved partially.

"The handling of Japanese angelica cannot be done partially so it requires the collaboration of all parties so that the handling runs more optimally," he said.

He added that the results of the cleaning would not be thrown into the Sarimukti Final Disposal Site, but would be placed in a number of shelter points to be used later.

"There are several shelter points. Some will be moved to the location that I have just reviewed. In addition, there are several lands owned by Indonesia Power that can be utilized later," he said.

He hopes that the cleaning of the water hyacinth can be carried out sustainably so that the function of the Saguling Reservoir is maintained, the environment becomes cleaner, and the water hyacinth that is still useful can be used by the community to become various products.