Bekasi City Government & Waste4Change Inaugurate the First Release of SeeHamster (Bekasi River-Cleaning Boat) with Bekasi River Cleanup Project (BRIC) with partners One Earth One Ocean e.V. and Schwarz Group
Kota Bekasi, 23 Februari 2021 – As part of the National Waste Awareness Day, the Bekasi City Government together with Waste4Change launched SeeHamster, a German-made river-cleaning boat, in Bekasi River, West Java, for the first time. The release of the first river-cleaning boat in Bekasi River was also attended by the Mayor of Bekasi, Rahmat Effendi, Head of the Bekasi Environmental Service, Head of South Bekasi Sub-District, Head of Pekayon Jaya Village, and Waste4Change Managing Director, Mohamad Bijaksana Junerosano.
As a part of Bekasi River Cleanup (BRIC) program, the procurement of the SeeHamster river-cleaning boat aims to collect, sort, and recycle waste from rivers in Bekasi City. Bekasi River was chosen as the first location for the release of the SeeHamster boat due to the warm welcome of the Bekasi City Government towards environmental conservation efforts in order to improve the quality of life of Bekasi people.
“The cooperation in cleaning up Bekasi river waste using boats will be accompanied by systemic assistance for about one year. With these 3 boats, I am optimistic that I can clean up the garbage in the Bekasi river. However, what we cannot control is the condition of the river upstream. This is because not all of the garbage in the Bekasi river comes from Bekasi residents, so we invite all elements to take part in taking part in protecting the Bekasi river from upstream to downstream, “said the Mayor of Bekasi, Rahmat Effendi.
The launch and test run of the SeeHamster was held in the morning of Tuesday, February 23, 2021. One of the three SeeHamster boats will then be operated to clean the river waste. The procurement of the SeeHamster river -cleaning boat optimistically will reduce the amount of waste generated in the river by up to 600 kg/ day. In addition to working with the Bekasi City Government, this program also collaborates with competent parties: PreZero / Schwarz Group, One Earth One Ocean (OEOO), the Bekasi City Environmental Service, and Frog Troops.
“Waste4Change is currently focusing on developing services to manage more waste and making approaches to several cities and districts that are open to collaborating in cleaning up waste. Hopefully, this form of collaboration with Bekasi City Government can inspire many people to clean other Indonesian rivers so we could together prevent more problems and find solutions to marine debris crisis that we are currently experiencing, ”concluded Mohamad Bijaksana Junerosano, Founder and Managing Director of Waste4Change.
