Environmental issues are increasingly becoming a concern in this modern era, not only in Indonesia but also as a global problem. Starting from climate change, environmental pollution, deforestation, declining biodiversity to water and waste crises, these are unavoidable issues. With the fourth largest population in the world, the Indonesian government needs to respond carefully and wisely in overcoming these problems since environmental issues can have quite diverse consequences in the future. With this background, the Minister of Environment / Head of the Environmental Control Agency, Dr. Hanif Faisol Nurofiq, S.Hut, MP visited Universitas Brawijaya on Saturday (7/12) to establish cooperation between the government and academics in realizing the vision and mission together, especially in scientific decision-making and appropriate policy instruments.
Since becoming part of the merah putih cabinet, Dr. Hanif has received a mandate from President Prabowo Subianto to regulate waste management and environmental control. According to him, one example of environmental issues that have occurred until now is reflected in the index of water quality, air, land and coastal health in Indonesia which has a relatively high tendency to degrade, especially from the water quality index. Almost all rivers in Indonesia have water quality that always decreases every year. Of course, by collaborating with UB academics, the Ministry of Environment has begun to prepare three main things in the realization of this cooperation, namely environmental damage control, climate change control and increasing the capacity of environmental human resources.
The government specifically put in details that the current need for environmental damage control is the need for innovation in the development of water pollution indicators that can see water conditions in real time in various regions, of course with rapid information updates to see how water pollution indicators will greatly help carry out comprehensive monitoring. “In addition, we also need innovation in waste management and industrial waste that can be studied through research at UB which will later be able to be scaled up to encourage realization in the field. Another challenge that is no less important is the restoration of contaminated land and ecosystem restoration, both of which have quite large financing problems and a long time. In addition, there is a need for an integrated environmental information system with artificial intelligence and big data to support the sustainability of environmental governance,” he said.
Furthermore, in climate control, the Ministry of Environment and UB have committed to planting mangroves in an effort to maximize the rehabilitation process in 600 thousand hectares of potential mangrove land in Indonesia. This step needs to be supported by the involvement of various parties including the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and UB campus because the largest mangrove placement in the world covers almost 23 percent of the world’s mangrove habitat, around 33.4 million are in Indonesia, so that this planting can become a flagship and get international attention and have a good impact on the environment without reducing its social and economic content. At the end of his visit to UB, Dr. Hanif took the time to plant mangroves in UB rectorate building area accompanied by Prof. Widodo S.Si, M.Si, Ph.D, Med.Sc as the Chancellor and the ranks of academic community leaders. [UB PR/ Trans. Iir]
