The rubbish in and around Kampong Ayer could fill approximately 50 million standard-sized garbage bags if it were to be collected, according to a study conducted by Associate Professor Dr Muhd Khairul Anwar Abdurrahman Harry of the Institute of Medicine, Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) and his team.

Using a 24 by 35-inch black plastic rubbish sack, they had estimated that a single sack could contain a manageable amount of one square metre of "flat" rubbish, or the top layer of rubbish and not including waste that had already sunk deep into the muddy river bed. Mukim Saba and Mukim Peramu, which cover an area of 36 hectares would require 100,000 to 200,000 of these bags.

With Kampong Ayer spanning about 1,616 hectares, they calculated that rubbish over the whole area of the water village could require anywhere from five million to 50 million black sacks. "It's a matter of a factor of 10, but it is still a very large amount of rubbish," he said.

He had used the idea of plastic sacks to place the amplitude of the water village's waste problem into context. Speaking to The Brunei Times, he said that removing the rubbish would indeed be a very difficult task. He explained that there is a lot of complex logistical problems since a majority of the rubbish was not exactly accessible. He said that most of the rubbish could only be accessed at low tide and even at that time, a boat could not be used to move the trash.

They had also conducted an extensive study of where most of the garbage was found. Coming up with a "cleanliness index," which is based on a semi-objective observation of visible garbage in the river as well as in and within the villages of Kg Ayer, they had identified which villages were suffering the most from the problem.

He pointed out that it was not mainly the villagers' fault since rubbish brought by the river current from elsewhere accumulated on the banks of these villages. He added that since many of these villages with high concentration of rubbish were situated near the mainland, a lot of the rubbish also came from people passing near the river.

He said that his team carried out research on Kg Ayer, funded by the Ministry of Development and regularly provided an annual report of their findings to the ministry, where they could decide on further action. He said that there are on-going projects which are trying to resolve the situation.

Dr Muhd Khairul Anwar said that any solution to the waste problem would have to be sustainable.

"It is good to raise awareness but a single campaign, from past experience, does not achieve very much because the campaigns are short-lived. They may last only for one month and very quickly after that the (rubbish) problem has (resurfaced)," he said.

"Whatever process that is put in place, has to be absolutely continuous and that is the real problem - keeping it clean," he added.

The research had also conducted a survey where they interviewed 206 tourists of their experience after having visited the water village. From the survey, a majority of the tourists found the water village itself to be clean but it was the river that was full of rubbish. Results showed that about 80 per cent of interviewed tourists found that unsightly rubbish in Kg Ayer would discourage them from visiting again and they would not recommend it to their friends.

"This is the most worrying statistic," he said.

Apart from symbolising the nation's historical origins, the water village plays a major role in Brunei's tourism image. Since the country is concentrating on diversifying its economy through areas such as the tourism industry, efforts to maintain Kg Ayer as an attraction to tourists are highly important, he stressed.

The associate professor was speaking during the two-day Kampong Ayer National Symposium which was held at the Chancellor Hall, UBD.

In Courtesy of The Brunei Times