People's habit of throwing liquid and solid waste into the Palu River has been going on for a long time. Public awareness of the littering problem is still very low.
This condition can be seen by the fact that many people still throw garbage into the river and even to the beach. This condition would potentially threaten the ecosystem of the coast of Palu Bay.
"Limitations of waste carriers from Palu local government made the amount of garbage increasing, forcing people to throw garbage to the river," said Silviani at the Graduate School of UGM, Saturday (9/4).
The teaching staff of the University of Palu said this when undergoing her open Doctoral Program of Environmental Sciences of Universitas Gadjah Mada. Accompanied by promoter, Prof. Dr. dr. KRT. Adi Heru Husodo., M.Sc, and co-promoter, Prof. Dr. M. Baiquni, MA, she defended a dissertation entitled Study on Ecohealth Concept Approach Toward Environment Health of Coastal Areas of Palu Bay in Central Sulawesi Province.
According to Silviani, various studies of Palu Bay have been done. But they always stand alone, either with the social, economic, political, or health approach.
"While the Ecohealth approach is an ecosystem approach to health that is consistent with the health of the population, considering the dynamic interplay between determinants and health outcomes," she said.
From her observations, Silviani said that the development in coastal and marine areas of Palu Bay would pose a threat to society in the future, as well as the environment and marine ecosystems in the Palu Bay. Moreover, if the local government only focuses on the development to generate taxes and charges, forgetting environmental values, it will be a disaster for the Palu Bay coastal ecosystem.
Therefore, building coastal and marine areas of Palu Bay is faced with the problems of development that are closely associated with the concept of coastal and marine management of Palu Bay. For that reason, to build sustainable development of Palu Bay, it is necessary to have an integrated single plan.
"This area administratively belongs to the Donggala and Palu Local Governments that are supposed to be able to produce policies in favor of the people. In general, there are 15 basic principles that should be considered in the planning and management of coastal areas," said Silviani.
The fifteen principles are unique resources system which requires a special approach in planning and managing development, and when the water is the major integrating forces in the coastal area ecosystems, spatial land and sea planning and management need to be done in an integrated manner.