Minister Pandjaitan launches trash cleaning boat on Citarum River

West Bandung, West Java (ANTARA) - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan on Saturday launched a pontoon boat that has been specifically designed to pull garbage from the Citarum River.

At the launch, he informed that the pontoon boat is a superior innovation from the Indonesian Army and developed as part of a sustainability initiative under Citarum Harum.

"This is an effort presented by the Indonesian Army to collect garbage using conveyor power that cleans the garbage without using human power," Pandjaitan informed after launching the boat in Sector 9 of the Citarum River, West Bandung District, West Java.

The pontoon boat was produced by the Indonesian Army's Equipment Center, he added.

According to the minister, the boat can work quickly to pull garbage from the river and load it onto a truck via a conveyor for sorting by a garbage sorting machine followed by incineration.

"This is the innovation in waste management that I have been dreaming about. I never imagined it could be realized by the Indonesian Army. This technology does not require a lot of manpower," he said.

He added that the launch was part of the Citarum Harum program, which aims to tackle pollution and improve water quality in one of the longest rivers in Indonesia.

"This is using quite similar technology from our previous assistance given by the Netherlands and France," Pandjaitan confirmed.

Moreover, he said that the price of one pontoon boat with conveyor made by the Indonesian Army is much more affordable compared to that of similar boats developed by the Netherlands and France, which cost US$1 million.

"Those given by the Netherlands and France are amounting to US$1 million. Meanwhile, this domestically made pontoon boat only (cost) Rp350 million (US$21 thousand). Therefore, I want this innovation to be perfected. It can also be offered through the e-catalog," he expounded.