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Budding Biologists Study East Java River
Amir Tejo | November 18, 2009

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Surabaya. Hundreds of students from 10 elementary schools in East Java conducted bio-assessments of the Brantas River in Gresik on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of efforts aimed at instilling a sense of environmental awareness in the children of the province.

Using nets and shovels, the students took turns scooping soil from the river’s bottom and bank to determine what kind of animals, if any, were living in the heavily polluted waterway.

“Determining the quality of water using bugs is fun. We learned that many bugs, like dragonflies, can only breed in clean water,” said Pricillia, a fifth-grader at Santa Theresia elementary school in the provincial capital Surabaya, some 30 kilometers south of Gresik.

The students, after completing their bio-assessments, arrived at the same conclusion as professional scientists: the Brantas River is heavily polluted.

According to the students, only nine species live in the river. These are the narrow-winged damselflies (Coenagrionidae), club-tailed damselflies (Gomphidae), freshwater mussels (Pilsbryoconcha exilis), freshwater snails (Thiaridae), freshwater shrimp (Atyidae), crabs (Parathelphusidae), mosquito larvae (Chironomus) and bloodworms (Lumbriculidae).

“Based on the number of creatures in the river, the participants have learned that the river can be categorized as dirty,” said Amirudin Mutaqien, coordinator of the Ecological Observation and Wetlands Conservation Office (Ecoton), which helped organize the event and assisted the students.

Amirudin said an estimated 330 tons of domestic and industrial waste was dumped into the Brantas River each day.

Meanwhile, Ratnadi Ismaon, secretary of the East Java Education Agency, said on Tuesday his office was considering incorporating bio-assessment activities into the curriculums of schools in the province as part of efforts to make students more environmentally aware.

“The program could help solve the pollution problem in the Brantas River,” he said.