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 - 18 Oct 2011 |
| Kidney failure threat from fish from polluted Surabaya river |
| | Fish that is not fit for consumption like this can trigger kidney failure if eaten in any sort of quantity |
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A recent survey has found that fish caught from the Surabaya River, East Java, could cause kidney failure in humans.
The hazard is believed to come from the decreasing quality of the fish because of the high level of pollutants in the 41-kilometer river.
Director of Ecological Observation and Wetlands Conservation (Ecoton), Prigi Arisandi, said that the Ecoton survey of the condition of the river showed that of the 350 fish taken from the river for the survey, only 13 were fit for human consumption.
The rest did not meet with the nutrition value coefficient (NVC).
“The number of fish caught is a representation of the fish population in the Surabaya River,” Prigi told The Jakarta Post recently.
He added that he had reported the results of the survey to the governor because the majority of people living along the banks of the river and local communities in Surabaya had been consuming the fish.
The fish are also sent to a number of traditional markets in the provincial capital.
Fish is popular among middle- and lower-income people because of its relatively low price compared to other foods.
“Fish that is not fit for consumption like this can trigger kidney failure if eaten in any sort of quantity,” Prigi said.
He said the degradation in the quality of the fish in the Surabaya River was because the population level of plankton, which had been the main source of food for the fish, had also decreased due to the declining quality of the
water as a result of the pollution.
The Surabaya River passes through the four regencies of Mojokerto, Sidoarjo and Gresik and the municipality of Surabaya. It has three tributaries, namely the Marmoyo, Tengah and Pelayaran Rivers.
The river supplies the Surabaya municipal tap-water company (PDAM) with 90 percent of the company’s total raw water needs.
A study conducted by the Public Works Ministry and Perum Jasa Tirta in 1999 showed that apart from industrial waste, 75.5 tons of domestic waste entered the Surabaya River every day.
This accounted for the river also being contaminated with the E. coli bacteria.
The amount of E. coli in the river, according to a 2005 survey, reached up to 64,000 bacterial cells per 100 milliliters.
According to Government Regulation (PP) No. 82/2001 on water quality management and water pollution control, the permissible level of E. coli should not exceed 1,000 bacterial cells per 100 milliliters.
The high level of pollution in the Surabaya River has also been blamed for the poor standard of health among the people living along its banks.
Data at the RSUD Dr. Soetomo hospital in Surabaya shows that 2-4 percent of children in the area suffer from cancer, 59 percent of whom are leukemia sufferers.
An Ecoton researcher, Andreas Agus Kristanto, said that high levels of pollution had also accounted for the decrease in the population of fish in the river. Due to the high levels of sewage, including adult female urine containing contraceptive chemicals, dumped in the river, the population of female fish had radically declined.
Sumber : Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya | Mon, 10/17/2011 11:34 PM
://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/10/17/kidney-failure-threat-fish-polluted-surabaya-river.html | | Pemasok: Prigi Arisandi |
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