For those who like culinary delights, especially seafood, will know Kedongnan Beach. The beach is about three kilometers to the south of Ngurah Rai International Airport. Kedonganan Beach is merged with Jimbaran Beach having been famous earlier. This beautiful and panoramic beach has a length of about 1,020 meters. In this coastal area, 24 seafood cafes are lined up and owned by more than 1,200 heads of families, all of whom are native residents to the Kedonganan customary village.

Domestic and foreign tourists like to visit the beach which is rich in fishing activities. They know best this beach as one of the classy culinary tourist destinations. This white sandy beach is very clean, beautiful and neat, so tourists prefer to sit in the cafés while looking at the blue sea rich in fish. “Unfortunately, every year in the period of November to March during the western season, this beach turns into a sea of ​​trash, including today,” said Chief of Kedonganan Customary Village, I Wayan Mertha, on Tuesday (Feb. 2).

The trash having stopped by there came from nowhere, and it was certain that it was brought by the waves and winds from the ocean. During those months, Kedonganan Beach shows its worst condition. The wind blows hard, and the beach is dirty with plastic waste and logs, and the sea waves are huge. “When this beach is full of trash, we cannot clean it up manually by only relying on human labor. The result is almost impossible because once the garbage is removed, soon the same amount of garbage will come from the sea,” he explained.

Due to such conditions, explained Wayan Mertha, the Badung Environment and Sanitation Agency (DLHK) has been deploying cleanup personnel and two tractors or bulldozers to clean up the beach for the past months. “Tourism stakeholders in Bali are also very concerned about the existence of Kedonganan Beach, so they take turns joining the community to go to the field to clean up Kedonganan Beach,” he said gratefully.

Like combat troops, the leaders of the Indonesia Hotel General Manager Association (IHGMA) and their staff, Paiketan Krama Bali, Trash Hero as well as students of Udayana University, Undiknas University, Bali Tourism Polytechnic and other environmental care organizations took to the field to carry out social responsibility and love for the land of Bali, especially on Kedonganan Beach. “Since early January 2021, apart from the Badung District Government through the DLHK Agency, there are environmental organizations and students from various campuses who have come to Kedonganan Beach to clean up this mountain of garbage,” he affirmed.

At this moment, the DLHK Badung has deployed three units of heavy equipment to transfer the garbage to the trucks having been prepared. Even though it cannot be finished in a day, it will be done the next day and so on. “Honestly, this activity really helps reduce the piles of plastic and wood waste having piled up on the shoreline,” concluded Wayan Mertha. (BTN/015)