Pekanbaru - The river‘s water is black, still and lifeless. On its bank is a plant that is processing globs of gray-white crude rubber into black rubber blocks, weighing 1.2 tons, for export.
"Product of Indonesia" is marked on each block‘s plastic wrapping. The plant‘s machinery is noisy and emits a foul odor. It also pipes out a constant surge of liquid effluent into the Siak River in Pekanbaru, the capital of oil-rich Riau province.
The Pekanbaru rubber processing plant is just one of more than 40 factories along the 300-kilometer river that empties into the east coast of Sumatra and the Malacca Strait.
The plants, which include oil, timber and rubber processing units, allegedly dump more than 80 million cubic meters of liquid waste into the river every year.
The poor state of the river is on one Pekanbaru schoolboy‘s mind.
"Siak is very dangerous and heavily polluted. The factories must stop dumping their waste into it. People must be made aware of the river‘s pollution," said Ayyub Desuandana Nugroho, a sixth grader at SDN 005 elementary school on Jl. Pontianak in Pekanbaru.
Ayyub and classmate Rayhan Prayoga (Yoga), 12, are aware of environmental issues, both locally and globally.
When asked how to prevent floods plaguing Pekanbaru, Yoga replied "People should not throw waste into the river. Timber businesses should stop cutting down trees illegally because it causes erosion and silts up the river." Yoga is the son of a government employee in the meteorology service.
Both boys speak intelligently and with clear self-confidence on immediate environmental concerns, such as the need to save water and power, and the three R principle -- reduce, reuse and recycle.
They also grasp the basic issues of climate change. The wasteful use of fuel for cars and air conditioning that produce carbon dioxide and other green house gases will only lead to global warming, said Ayyub.
Ayyub, Yoga and their fellow schoolmates are aware of green issues because their school is committed to environmental education.
The school‘s 613 children in 18 classes have a mixed background. Their parents include local government officials, business leaders, small store owners and garbage collectors.
"We instill an awareness in our students of caring for the environment -- a clean and beautiful environment," said Nurainin, who has been the school‘s principal since 1989.
A visitor walking through the yard of the two-story brick building finds the premises clean, with no scattered garbage.
In the hallway in front of each classroom door, one can spot a covered waste basket. Non-organic waste, like plastic bags in the basket, are later transferred to a larger bin in the back corner of the school. The trash is regularly collected by a city garbage truck.
Organic waste, like dry leaves, is collected to make compost for the school‘s Anggun Suri plant nursery.
The students tend to herbal and exotic plants in polybags.
Part of the schoolyard has rows of tiny 20-centimeter high anthuriums. The plants are auctioned to parents when they come to collect their children‘s report cards.
The parents decide how much they want to pay for a seedling. However, large anthuriums in clay pots sell for up to Rp 150,000. The money earned is used to support the school‘s green activities.
Sixth grade teacher Eliani said before starting the school day, the students swept their classrooms. They then gather to recite the five-point ikrar usaha kesehatan sekolah (school health pledge), which includes a pledge to keep "the school clean, beautiful and in order".
No students can miss the meaningful messages plastered around the school grounds. At the front gate, a board reads: "Cleanliness is part of faith", while in the classroom, a message urges students to "Keep our classroom clean". In the bathrooms posters read "Don‘t let water overflow".
Nurainin, who is retiring this month, said she applied green programs following an environment education training program in Jakarta in 2001.
She used the training to integrate environment lessons in school subjects for first to sixth graders and to develop school syllabuses to incorporate environment issues. Each grade now has one environment specific lesson a week.
In the second grade syllabus, for instance, pupils learn to describe the environment around their homes and school. They also learn about forests and ecosystems, as well as a series of activities, such as producing clean water.
In 2007, the Pekanbaru city office of the Environment Impact Management Agency (Bapedalda) nominated the school for the nationwide Adiwiyata program, an initiative of the Environment Ministry to recognize environmentally friendly schools.
Adiwiyata, Sanskrit for ideal learning place, uses four indicators to identify such schools. The four are based on school policy, curriculum, participatory activities and supporting facilities.
The program, which started in 2006, covers schools in Java. Last year, 146 elementary, junior and high schools from 17 provinces participated in the program.
"We hope to cover all of the country‘s 33 provinces eventually," says Jo Kumala Dewi, the Environment Ministry‘s Adiwiyata team leader.
This year, the Environment Ministry placed SDN 005 in the list of 30 schools from across the nation as candidates for Adiwiyata model schools.
Looking ahead, Pekanbaru Bapedalda head Dedi Gusriadi hopes SDN 005 can become a model green school in Pekanbaru.
Principal Nurainin has the same hope. "I want this school to become a center for learning about the environment." (Warief Djajanto Basorie)
Source: old.thejakartapost.com (4 Juni 2008)
