I thought I'd give you some delightful imagery of my little slice of paradise.
Environment is not high on the priority list here. But making money at the expense of it certainly is.
The
prime example is the seemingly humble palm plantation - "kebun sawit".
Hectares of virgin Indonesian rainforest are being knocked down to plant
these ghastly trees, all for the purpose of harvesting palm oil. The
community cuts the wood for their own consumption first, but they are
being encouraged by the government to sell and/or rent their land to the
palm oil companies who make big bucks - and little goes back to the
community. There is a lot of community land dedicated to palm oil
production.
The
Bupati - the head of governance in Simeulue - is up to his neck in
dodgy dealings with the oil companies too, at the expense of the
community. He's been in court and I think even in jail for it. The
amount of land available on Simeulue is not even close to that needed
for a palm processing facility.
It's depressing to drive around the plantations and see just how much was
forest before. I remember the first time I arrived in Simeulue and went
for a nice drive - only for my jaw to drop to the floor when I drove
over the hill and saw the rows upon rows of palm trees stretching to the
horizon. And the destruction continues around the island - even in
Salang where I work, there are just more and more hectares being
cleared. We don't see many monkeys any more :(
Then
there's the rubbish dump. It's gross! There is no proper way to deal
with the mountains of plastic bags, bottles, food scraps, wood and other
rubbish that rapidly accumulates in this little town. There are a few
entrepreuners around town who have set up their own businesses to
collect cans, old bikes, 44 gallon drums and rusty old ships and export
the metal back to Medan by ferry. There are scavengers that peruse the
area for anything valuable that can be recycled, like plastic bottles,
for which they get a small sum of money. 
In
terms of dealing with household waste, people just make a pile out the
back of their house, dump their rubbish there, and burn it. In some ways
it stops the rubbish making its way into the drains and the sea, but
pollution-wise it's not good, especially as a high proportion of the
waste is toxic plastic bags.
Recently, the UN
set up a waste sorting and management facility (the big blue building in
the picture) to try and deal with it. They are also planning a waste
education program. the can really only operate effectively in Sinabang,
the location of the main mass of people. In the kampungs its not
feasible.
The
positive thing about the waste management program though is that it's a
practical one. The idea is that the Department of Sanitation, together
with UN, go around with trucks and personnel and load up with the town's
rubbish. Then they take it out to the waste management facility at the
dump and sort it into non-recyclable and recyclable plastics, organic
matter, paper, wood, metals etc. The organic waste gets composted and
any recyclables sent to Medan by ferry to be recycled.
The
harbour is a disgrace rubbish-wise. People dump their rubbish straight
into the 'rivers' - read concrete lined canals to transport water to the
sea - and it goes straight into the harbour. Plus there's the fishermen
and boat passengers that throw all their rubbish overboard. There
really is very little understanding about the importance of waste
management. The UN has now started a waste collection and harbour
clean-up program in Sinabang to try and deal with the growing mountain
of plastic bags, bottles, fishing nets and other visible rubbish that
blights the landscape; we regularly see teams of rubbish collectors
around the place. But they're fighting an uphill battle; as soon as they
clear the shoreline, more rubbish washes in. If you take a boat out
into the harbour and beyond, on the way back you don't need to guess how
close you are to home - just observe how much rubbish floats by!
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