Erwin and Puskesmas Kataka director Bertoldus Rudolfus Bond, A.Md.Kep sit beside a waste poster in East Sumba.
Fotografie im Format 1920 × 1080. Klicken Sie auf das Bild, um es in voller Größe anzuzeigen.
Abfallkrise in Ost-Sumba und ein Gebet für öffentliche Maßnahmen
Dieses neue Picture of the Day shows two men with bowed heads and closed eyes beside our waste-sorting poster. The East Sumba waste crisis gives this moment a painful meaning. To me, the prayer asks whether we have reached the point of asking God to do what public services should do. A poster explains the risks. Public action must follow.
The two plastic water bottles trouble me too. We were offered water in a room without air conditioning, perhaps 40°C. We are mindful of plastic bottles. This is a contradiction.
Facing the East Sumba waste crisis
In the places where I work, discarded plastic has become part of the landscape. I do not see the authorities acting at the scale required. That is my observation from the field. Families need reliable collection and safe disposal. Telling them to be responsible is insufficient when those services are missing.
Fair Future has placed large educational billboards at ten locations in Waingapu. In villages, Kawan Sehat health agents carry fabric posters in their bags. They unfold them, explain waste sorting and discuss the risks with families. Their work brings prevention into daily life.
A shared health responsibility
Poorly managed waste can contaminate water and soil; burning it releases pollutants that damage respiratory health. Plastic pollution also harms wildlife and ecosystems. Eine Gesundheit connects these risks to the health of the people living alongside them.
Our waste-management poster und educational campaigns give people tools to begin. But education needs a functioning waste system behind it. A health agent cannot carry a town’s public-service responsibilities in her bag.
I respect the prayer in this photograph. What I cannot accept is that communities should have to wait for a miracle to obtain basic protection. The East Sumba waste crisis demands public action, while our agents continue the work within their reach.
Alex Wettstein – Fair Future Foundation
Weitere Informationen
- Weltgesundheitsorganisation: Explains how unsafe waste disposal contaminates water, soil and air, and why reliable collection is essential to protect public health.
- Weltgesundheitsorganisation: Reviews the pollutants released by open waste burning, their effects on respiratory health and practical measures to reduce exposure.
- Umweltprogramm der Vereinten Nationen: Reviews plastic pollution from land to sea, including damage to wildlife and ecosystems and risks to people’s health and well-being.
- Weltgesundheitsorganisation: Defines One Health and explains why protecting people, animals and ecosystems requires shared action across sectors and communities.
- Umweltprogramm der Vereinten Nationen: Examines waste prevention, collection and management, with practical responsibilities for governments, municipalities, producers and citizens.
