Joining In The Morotai Sea, Sandiaga Uno Tells About Waste

Sandiaga Uno (Photo via Ministry)

JAKARTA - Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno is trying the sensation of swimming in the sea free or open water swimming on Dodola Island, Morotai Island Regency, North Maluku Province.

Sandiaga Uno was not alone, accompanied by three other people had to swim 800 meters to get to the coast of Dodola Island, which is one of the leading tourist destination islands in Morotai.

"Thank you very much for the beauty of Morotai Island, this is very good, I felt the sensation of swimming on the high seas, in the free sea called open water swimming and here we see that it is indeed a natural beauty," said Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno, Saturday, November 26.

Sandiaga Uno said that Dodola Island must continue to be preserved so that the beauty of the beach is not polluted. Because, while swimming, the former Deputy Governor of DKI Jakarta still found a lot of garbage in the sea, especially in tourist attraction areas, so there is a need for collaboration between the government and the community to overcome waste problems.

"This eastern part of Indonesia is to work hand in hand, work together, the waste must be completed upstream. If we do reduce, reuse, recycle, we saw all the plastic waste, there are also wood, there are also bottle caps," he said.

"We have to make sure that we have a system to ward off waste from upstream. But if we arrive at sea like this we must have the ability to orchestrate conscious groups in the environment to clean the beach, clean the sea, and increase our concern for the sustainability of nature," continued Sandiaga Uno.

Furthermore, Sandiaga Uno together with Acting Regent of Morotai Muhammad Umar Ali and Forkopimda planted a casuari tree on the coast of Dodola Island as a form of providing protection from the threat of beach abrasion and also to protect the environment of Dodola Island.

"Because we enjoy nature, we must preserve nature by planting caswari trees which are often referred to as beachopers, or spruce. Of course this is part of quality and sustainable tourism. Many see that the tourism can only contribute a little from the economic activity of around 4.3%, but 20 million jobs when coupled with natural sustainability activities we can add more than 4.4 million new jobs in 2024," he said.