Here are a few of Arnold Simanjuntaks images which were taken when he visited Jakarta for the first time in april 2014. His aim was to photograph the developing environmental issue of the rubbish pollution in the streets of Jakarta.
This picture is one of the hundreds of streets that are filled with hundreds of rubbish bags. He shows the on going problem of the bags piling up, destroying open areas.
This is a picture showing a river that is absolutely full of rubbish. Arnold had photographed a river that is slowly being piled up with rubbish, destroying a natural river.
In April 2014 Arnold Simanjuntak travelled to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta for the first time. The goal was to visit the city and photograph one of the world’s most underreported emerging economies which is why he wanted to photograph there to continue his work on environmental issues in developing nations. One of his first impressions was the terrible smell. The smell came from the rivers and canals that ran through the city where over 10 million people live. 400,000 litters of waste are dumped into the capital’s rivers and canals every day, according to a 2009 report about Jakarta. People throw household waste directly into the water. Nitrates and phosphates from rubbish pollution increases the growth of algae, algae covers the surface of the water which restricts the amount of oxygen in the water and kills aquatic life below. He photographed a young family who ran a small shop selling sweets and snacks. A few metres away from the storefront there are banks of the river. The river had brown waters, carrying plastic bags, bottles, polystyrene boxes and other random items discarded from upstream. Toilets are emptied, discarding the contents straight into the river. The river like many in Jakarta, are basically sewers. People are affected by this issue, for example, sea levels rising, flooding and climate change. He focused on form, shapes and colours that he saw. He did this to show the issue in a new way, to try to draw the viewer in, even though the scene might make the viewer want to turn away. Water pollution is such a big issue in Jakarta, because there are poor communities that are at risk and become affected by this. Small changes are happening in Jakarta. The government are under pressure to effectively deal with these issues to prevent health issues that come with living in those conditions.