UGM Diving student group has done a community service and research project in Karimunjawa island, Central Java, themed Go Dive Go Clean.
From 27 April - 3 May 2018, the UGM students did the project as an effort to conserve the environment and raise environmental awareness among the local community.
Chairman of the team, Herdi Wira, said there were 18 members joining the project and educating the community in waste management.
“We socialise the way to manage waste and the type of the waste to students of a junior high school, SMP N I Karimunjawa,” he said on Wednesday (9/5) at UGM.
The explained the concept of reduce, reuse and recycle to the young students so that they know how to do waste management well.
Herdi said the UGM students also socialised First Aid in the waters, what to do while saving oneself or helping others in the water and how to do safe activity in the waters.
“We need to do this because the junior high students have been accustomed to the water environment so that they can give help and do activities safely,” he said.
In the Go Dive Go Clean event, the UGM team also collected samples for research in the form of sand from the tidal zone of Legon Lele and Ujung Gelam. Sample taking was done for each of 40 meters from a size of 50x50 cm and at 1 cm depth. They will later observe the microplastic content in the sand.