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Polluted Bengawan Solo river disrupts its ecosystem

Solo, Ekuatorial – Polluted Bengawan Solo river of Central Java not only unsuitable for consumption, but it was also affecting its biodiversity, especially fishes, said a scientist, in Solo, Central Java, on Tuesday (13/1).

Puguh Karyadi, a lecturer at Ecology Department of Solo’s Sebelas Maret University, said that the ecosystem of Bengawan Solo river watershed area was badly damaged due to toxic waste from industries which killed its habitat. Karyadi said low awareness of people living in river banks, sedimentation, and flood dikes have added complication which led to decrease fish population. Small fishes and other river species, he added, lost their breeding places because they were already covered with cement.

“Meanwhile, sponges at the river banks are breeding places for fishes, shrimps, or shells. When all river banks are covered, many of them died. It’s a dilemma. On one side, dikes are built to prevent floods coming to residents. However, on the other side, these dikes are making fishes hard to breed,” he said citing Sidat fish or eel as one of the fishes threatened by the dike.

Furthermore, he said that chemical substances ran through the river would, instead, feed certain plankton or called as eutrophication which turned the water to green, muddy, and release bad odor. Consequently, water quality is decreasing leading to killing fishes and other species. “With losing fishes and other species, then water ecosystem would be disrupted and cause imbalance,” he said. “If plankton’s population bloomed, it will definitely disrupt its biodiversity.”

He also cited several fish species as indicator for polluted rivers, such as catfish, freshwater catfish (Liposarcus pardalis), and kepala timah fish, which were mostly found on Solo-Sragen watershed areas.

Sarwoko, one of Sroyo resident of Karanganyar, said that many fishes in Bengawan Solo river could no longer be consumed by humans. “Most of fishes [found] were freshwater catfish, sometimes catfish. Meanwhile, others species are getting hard to be fished nowadays,” he said adding that they could still find shrimps, clams, spotted-barb fish, Java barb (tawes), Mozambique tilapia (mujair) in the river. Bramantyo

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