page_title: Citarum River
section_title: Pollution
hierarchical_section_title: Citarum River / Pollution
caption_attribution_description: English: Top 15 most toxic places to live
context_page_description: The Citarum River is the longest and largest river in West Java, Indonesia. It is the third longest river in Java, after Bengawan Solo and Brantas. It has an important role in the life of the people of West Java, as it supports agriculture, water supply, fishery, industry, sewerage, and electricity for 25 million people. It has been called one of the most polluted rivers in the world.
context_section_description: The river is heavily polluted by human activity; about five million people live in its basin. Textile factories in Bandung and Cimahi were major toxic waste contributors. More than 2,000 industries contaminate 5,020 sq miles of the river with lead, mercury, arsenic, and other toxins. According to the documentary Green Warriors Indonesia by Martin Boudot, some of the other toxins include sulphites, nonylphenol, phtalates, PCB 180, paranitrophenol, tributylphosphate. The documentary also mentions that the most dangerous pollution comes from the Indonesian textile industry (with many textile factories being part of Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia). It is also mentioned that the textile factory effluents are only tested on a very select number of parameters. It was thus also proposed in the documentary that a revisal on the textile industry guidelines could include more parameters such as sulphites and heavy metals.
  On December 5, 2008, the Asian Development Bank approved a $500 million loan for cleaning up the river, calling it the world's dirtiest.
  Environmentalists have observed that over 20,000 tons of waste and 340,000 tons of wastewater from those textile factories are disposed into the river on a daily basis. A result of this pollution has been the elimination of a significant part of the river's fish population estimated at 60% since 2008.
caption: The surface of the Citarum is completely covered by waste at some places.
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