NET DRAWN OVER POLLUTED SENTIONG RIVER CREATES A BIT OF A STINK FOR ASIAN GAMES HOST CITY

The Jakarta city government has come under fire for buying a giant nylon net to cover up a polluted and foul-smelling river weeks before the Indonesian capital hosts the 2018 Asian Games.

The Sentiong River, which twists alongside the athletes’ village in Kemayoran in central Jakarta, is so polluted it is known by locals as ‘kali item’, or the black river.

The administration installed a 600 by 20 metre black mesh net earlier in July to minimise the putrid stench and unsightly view.

An official from the Jakarta water resources agency said the nets were intended to hide the aquatic eyesore.

“Its function is to elevate the beauty [of the river] so that the black water cannot be directly seen by international athletes,” the official, Supriyono, told the Kompas newspaper.

The cost of the river beautification plan is just over 580-million rupiah (Dh147,146), Jakarta’s deputy governor, Sandiaga Uno, told reporters at city hall on Tuesday.

The move has been criticised and ridiculed, with some saying the city government was more interested in covering up the river than in trying to clean it.

Jakarta’s governor, Anies Baswedan, has argued that his administration inherited the chronic problem.

“If the past administrations took notice of this issue, we would not have inherited the black river,” he told the Tempo magazine. “But now it has grabbed widespread attention.”

The governor said on a visit to the area that the river had to ■