CRW (Cisadane River Watch) is a group formed to develop community care sense for
Cisadane River (137, 8 km) in West Java/Banten (Indonesia). This group consists
of teachers, students, and communities from Bogor region to Tangerang region in
West Java and Banten Province. CRW and its activities are in three areas of
Cisadane streams, those are:
- Cisadane Upstream Area in Bogor /
Sukabumi border, with groups involved: MAN 1 Cigombong, Harapan Bangsa School, MTs.Mazro'atussibyan (these groups are
school based organizations), and Lindalang Group.
- Cisadane Midstream
in the city of Bogor, the groups involved: SMP 13, SMA Plus BBS (Bina Bangsa
Sejahtera), SMA Kornita IPB (these groups are school based organizations)and Footprint
Friendly Earth (aka Jerami Group).
- Cisadane Downstream Area in
Tangerang City, namely: SMAN 12 Tangerang (high school based organization) and Tabur
Mangrove Communities.
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| Biomonitoring by Junior High School Students |
CRW initiation begins from biomonitoring training activities that were held in
January 2014 in Bogor by RMI Foundation (Indonesian Young Foresters), where the
training was followed by seven schools of the city of Bogor and Tangerang. To
have a group to do Cisadane River monitoring activity is a part of training
action plan. Biomonitoring itself is the name for one methods to measure the
quality of water based on the existence of certain living creatures (usually
invertebrates as bioindicators of water). Biomonitoring methods used for
reasons of convenience and practicality in practice it. With a guide book and
some debriefing for students, they can easily measure pollutions level in a
locations.
The seven schools are finishing biomonitoring training and then committed to do
environmental activities once a month.
A month later after the biomonitoring
training, we (Mahmud and Rahma) as CRW coordinator start to do monitoring
activities in the upstream, midstream and downstream of the Cisadane River with
the groups. This activity is also useful to look at other needs required by different
schools or community groups in separate location. As a result is input for CRW
activities that will be proposed to strengthen the schools / groups.
For example, we found from the monitoring that teachers (who are involved in previous
training) sometimes don’t have enough power to determine/implement school
policy related with environment activity, due to bureaucracy. They often
feeling down and even become single fighter to encourage school policy. In the
other hand, some teachers said that this training give them much benefit such
as skill, network and information. They can implement their lesson to teach in
the class or in extracuriculer activity (such as scout, science club, etc).
Each
community also have unique character, potential and different resources.
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| Discussion, to determine activities with the youth |
For
instance, Lindalang Group (which is Rahma’s group), that is focus on recycling
activity
converted plastic
garbage into beautiful handmade handicraft. In the central region there are SMP
13 (Junior High School) which focus on waste management and environmental education
in the school. In the downstream area of Cisadane River, there is SMAN 12 Teluk
Naga (Senior High School), where the school is conducting an organic vegetable
growing and has plan to make garbage bank, to solve the problem of waste in the
school.
As a
suggestion for the CRW team, it is needed to organize second training / workshop for teachers or certain
principal to make them more involved in this community, to strengthen their
commitment and to equip them with the right strategy in the school / community.
 |
| To prepare biopori hole in the ground so it can absorb more water | |
As our plan,
to get enough water quality data from Cisadane River;
upstream-midstream-downstream area periodically; it has not been completely
achieved. We still face many challenges from the capacity of local groups, time
and project management, networking, campaign, etc.
As one of
the main challenge, there are also some communities that not able to continue monitoring
activities, due to the busyness of the community itself, and the lack of common
interests with the purpose of CRW); but on the other hand, there is also a new
community arises like SMP 13 (Junior High School) of Bogor. We think this
challenge must be faced and as a part of dynamic situation in community
empowerment activities.
There is hope that the CRW activities can be as starting point for a bigger
environmental movement, by groups, in many cities / districts. For schools, for
example, it is expected that activities such as environmental monitoring
activity can be integrated with the curriculum, to raise awareness for environment.
For community based group, this activity is expected to make the group stronger
and then can influence more people.
If many people do little thing together everywhere we believe that something
big will happen.
Writting by Mahmudin, volunteer for RMI Foundation and member of Satria Muda, member of SMN (Suara Muda Nusantara) and OROL Campaign Coordinator
Edited and translated by Indra NH and Rahma Novianti
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Cisadane River Watch
CRW (Cisadane River Watch) adalah komunitas yang dibentuk
untuk meningkatkan rasa peduli masyarakat terhadap Sungai Cisadane (137,8 km) di
Jawa Barat (Indonesia). Kelompok ini beranggotakan Guru, Pelajar Sekolah, dan Komunitas
Masyarakat. Aktifitas CRW dan kelompoknya berada di tiga wilayah aliran Sungai
Cisadane, yaitu
- Hulu Sungai Cisadane di perbatasan
Sukabumi-Bogor, dengan kelompok yang terlibat: SMAN 1 Cigombong, SMA Harapan Bangsa, MTs.Mazro’atussibyan, dan Komunitas
Lindalang.
- Bagian tengah Sungai Cisadane di bagian Kota
Bogor, dengan kelompok yang terlibat: SMP 13, SMA Plus BBS (Bina Bangsa Sejahtera),
SMA Kornita IPB dan Komunitas JERAMI (Jejak Ramah Bumi).
- Bagian hilir Sungai Cisadane di bagian Kota Tanggerang,
yaitu: SMA N 12 Tanggerang dan Komunitas
Tabur Mangrove.
Inisiasi CRW berawal dari aktifitas pelatihan biomonitoring
yang diadakan pada bulan Januari 2014 di Bogor oleh Yayasan RMI (Rimbawan Muda
Indonesia), dimana pelatihan ini diikuti oleh tujuh sekolah dari Kota Bogor dan
Tangerang. Pembentukan Cisadane River Watch ini adalah bagian dari RTL (Rencana
Tindak Lanjut) dari pelatihan biomonitoring tersebut. Biomonitoring
sendiri adalah sebutan bagi salah satu metode untuk mengukur kualitas
air berdasarkan keberadaan makhluk hidup tertentu (umumnya adalah invertebrata
sebagai bioindikator air). Metode biomonitoring dipergunakan karena alasan
kemudahan dan kepraktisan dalam mempraktikannya. Dengan buku panduan, sedikit
pembekalan dengan mudah siswa-siswi dapat mengukur ketercemaran suatu lokasi
perairan.
Ke tujuh sekolah yang mengikuti pelatihan biomonitoring,
berkomitmen untuk melakukan aktifitas biomonitoring sebulan sekali.
Jeda sebulan setelah pelatihan biomonitoring tersebut, kami
(Mahmud dan Rahma) yang menjadi koordinator CRW melakukan monitoring kegiatan
di wilayah hulu, tengah dan hilir Sungai Cisadane tersebut. Kegiatan monitoring
ini juga berguna untuk melihat kebutuhan-kebutuhan lain yang diperlukan oleh
sekolah atau kelompok masyarakat dimana mereka berada. Sebagai hasil adalah
masukan bagi kegiatan CRW yang akan diusulkan kepada sekolah / kelompok
tersebut.
Sebagai contoh adalah bahwa dari hasil monitoring didapatkan
bahwa di sekolah-sekolah ternyata posisi guru umumnya masih belum cukup kuat
untuk dapat menentukan kebijakan di sekolah.
Sebagai masukan kepada tim CRW
adalah perlunya diselenggarakan pelatihan kembali bagi guru-guru atau Kepala
Sekolah yang diinginkan terlibat pada komunitas ini, untuk memperkuat komitmen
serta melengkapi peserta dengan strategi yang tepat dalam beraktifitas.
Masing-masing komunitas memang memiliki kekhasannya
masing-masing. Sebagai contoh misalnya komunitas LINDALANG (Lingkungan Daur
Ulang), yang memilii fokus kegiatan daur ulang sampah, dimana sampah plastik
diubah menjadi barang yang mempunyai harga jual. Di wilayah tengah ada SMP 13
yang sudah fokus melakukan kegiatan Penanaman, pengelolaan sampah dan kegiata-kegiatan untuk meningkatkan
kesadaran terhadap lingkungan kepada siswa di sekolah. Di wilayah hilir Sungai
Cisadane misalnya ada SMAN 12 Teluk Naga, dimana sekolah ini melakukan kegiatan
penanaman sayur organik dan memiliki harapan
dapat membuat bank sampah untuk mengatasi masalah sampah di sekolah.
Dari apa yang diharapkan terjadi yaitu mendapatkan data
kualitas sungai yang berasal dari bagian hulu tengah dan hilir Sungai Cisadane,
memang belum semuanya tercapai. Ada komunitas yang kemudian tidak dapat melanjutkan
kegiatan (biasanya dikarenakan kesibukan dari komunitas itu sendiri dan
kurangnya persamaan kepentingannya dengan tujuan CRW); namun di sisi lain
muncul juga komunitas baru yang pada awal pembentukan CRW tidak ada namun
kemudian muncul akibat kesamaan kepentingan seperti halnya komunitas sekolah di
SMPN 13 Bogor. Semuanya merupakan dinamika dalam kegiatan ini.
Ada harapan bahwa kegiatan CRW bagi kelompok-kelompok yang
bergabung merupakan suatu awalan untuk gerakan lingkungan yang lebih besar.
Bagi sekolah, misalnya diharapkan bahwa kegiatan seperti pemantauan lingkungan
bisa terintegrasi dengan kurikulum pelajaran, untuk menanamkan rasa cinta
lingkungan kepada anak-anak. Bagi kelompok masyarakat, diharapkan kegiatan ini
bisa membuat kelompok semakin bersatu, kuat dan bisa menyebarkan virus-virus
pergerakan di masyarakat.
Apabila sesuatu yang kecil dilakukan
oleh banyak orang, kami percaya bahwa sesuatu yang besar akan terjadi.
