The Story of Sigma Men

39. Underrated

[POV for Zahid]

I passed the road in the village where I lived. Here there is a river about six meters wide. It is more than a kilometer long with downstream to the big river, the Musi River.

The river is filled with rubbish. If it is in a summer atmosphere and long does not rain, then the garbage will dry up.

The only thing I can do to contribute to a better society is to write because I can't change their mindset by speaking directly.

So, I wrote an article that will later be published in a print media so that the relevant parties and the public know my complaints as a society itself as well as a student.

...

The article I made:

Ten or fifteen years ago we may have never seen a pile of trash scattered about. But now we are not strange anymore to see garbage scattered, especially in the river. This sad event not only happened in some places but in many places.

One of them is the dam river flow in the area 7 ulu, subdistrict opposite ulu I. This stream was filled with garbage, to the point that the garbage dried up and almost became soil. This is because the intensity of the weather is often hot and rarely rains. Worse until there is an animal like a chicken walking around on it.

Most of the garbage piles are remnants of human enjoyment, such as food and drink wrappers. Likewise with other instant products, such as instant noodle packaging, instant milk, candy wrappers, soft drink bottles and cans and the like. So did the cigarette stubs and wrappers.

The cause of this is the lack of public knowledge about environmental hygiene and health. Ignorance is what makes society so good at throwing garbage out of place.

It is also caused by indifference to a clean environment. The community is busy with routines such as, work and make a living, school, fun and other things. Society is also often preoccupied with worldly things that make them individualistic people, in the end the community no longer cares about the environment in which they live.

The adverse effects of the amount of garbage and dirt include the occurrence of environmental pollution, the spread of various types of diseases, the environment becomes unclean, unhealthy lifestyles and becomes a nest of mosquito larvae.

That is why people and governments should be aware of this. There must be prevention and countermeasures from the parties concerned.

The most preferred is the awareness of each individual on the importance of a clean and healthy environment. Then reduce the consumption of instant products, besides not good for health and also the garbage will be troublesome for many people. And replaced by consuming something natural such as fruits and vegetables, in addition to more healthy.

The community should also not throw garbage in any place, especially in the river because there are so many bad effects, such as causing flooding. People should throw their trash in its place. And make garbage for useful things, such as recycling it or reselling it, such as plastic waste, bottles and cans of drinks.

A clean environment is the dream of every human being who lives around him. So, each person must have a strong awareness and desire to make it happen. A clean environment is a common property, so there is no way to make it happen but together or in pieces.

***

After publication, the article then had a positive impact on society and the environment. A few days after that, Mr. Lurah immediately assigned to his subordinates so that the community would do a cutong-royong cleaning of the river on Sunday.

Actually gotong-royong every day of the week is a routine of the surrounding community, but it was a long time ago. In the last few years, this activity has stopped.

Until finally that Sunday came. Mr. Lurah, all ranks, and the community down to the river with various tools such as grafts such as forks, hoes, long wood, and garbage carts.

The dirty river photo that was clearly displayed in the newspaper became a small proposal against the lower level government, such as Lurah da RT, because of shame against the city government, shame against other villages.

Not until there, I saw on the internet an event for students to be able to show their creativity by writing: Student Creativity Program.

This time the PKM I followed was Written Ideas. The event is held by Dikti every year.

PKM-GT is a scientific article writing program that comes from the ideas or ideas of student groups.

The ideas written refer to actual issues that exist in society and require solutions that are intelligent and realistic.

PKM-GT is a vehicle for students to practice writing down creative ideas as an intellectual response to actual problems faced by society.

The purpose of this activity is to develop student writing in the form of pouring creative ideas or ideas.

Therefore, I as a student who wants to play a role in useful things will follow the program and the main topic is still about the cleanliness of the river.

Proposals must carry a minimum of three people. Until now the only person I knew in this class was Girang. Can his brain be used to help me do this?

Because one of the participants had to come from two different majors, then I remembered with Rani, plus the reason is she is a language child, automatically better understand with a good writing method.

So my two members are Girang and Rani. I was assigned as a busy person here and there, such as printing at the cafe, photocopying, and licking documents.

Rani is assigned as a language consultant. He fixed the wrong words, straightened out the messy arrangement of sentences, and embellished the irregular paragraphs.

There are some things I need to fix. He also gave several suggestions to change a little of the contents of my writing before giving his signature as an agreement that my writing is feasible.

After that I went to see the Head of Department to ask for a signature and a stamp as endorsement. I've not been complicated until now.

This afternoon I immediately rushed to Vice Rector 3. One of the conditions is to get approval from Vice Rector 3 with proof of signature and wet stamp.

I climbed the stairs to the second floor of the building. Some officers said there, Father was not in his room because he was attending a meeting.

I turned to the room called. Perfect fit. He passed me when he came out of the meeting room.

“Excuse me, Sir. I want to ask for approval from my father. I participated in the PKM held by Dikti. Please help, sir. Thanks.”

Mr. Vice-Chancellor three gawked, then walked quickly towards his room without caring for me in the least.

Before that he was a little angry because he saw me wearing only a t-shirt, while there were some students who were waiting for his presence for a thesis consultation all wearing shirts and alma mater suits.

My appearance is not worthy of even being said to be disrespectful. Anyone who enters the room should dress modestly. Where my hair is long again.

That's why he doesn't care about me. Then I was briefly drawn near the stairs. Feel bad. But I have to ask for his signature. Must it.

Suddenly Mr. Vice-Chancellor 3 returned and approached me. “You wrote an article in this newspaper?” He holds his newspaper.

He knew because my photo was listed near the article and plus there was an identity in the form of a name and place of college.

“Come quickly to the room Father!”

I followed behind his back, then entered. The room is not too wide, then the steam blowing from the AC attached to the wall is getting cold.

At the table are many stacks of files, maps, and books. Outside the students who had been queuing up from earlier were dumbstruck. Why the newly arrived me can suddenly go straight in.

“Please sit.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

The grizzled man read a glimpse of my writing, then wholeheartedly gave me a signature and a wet stamp.

***

SUMMARY

The Palembang City Government has launched several programs to make Palembang a tourism city. One of the sectors in the government's spotlight is water tourism. The priority of the government program is to make the Musi River a center visited by tourists. The government itself has prepared several points to open a new economic zone in the area of the Musi River.

Area 7 Ulu Lorong Garuda 1 which is fed by the canal and the river that empties into the Musi river can be one of the points of the new economic zone that has been proclaimed by the Palembang City government. However, one of the obstacles that hamper this plan is the issue of environmental hygiene. The flow of canals and rivers and the area around the area is filled with a lot of garbage and dirt so that environmental pollution occurs.

This paper aims to help the government and society in realizing the creation of a clean and healthy environment and to further increase the value of awareness about the adverse effects and dangers of environmental pollution. This paper also aims to help the government in realizing Palembang as a tourism city. The revitalization of the river dam at 7 Ulu is an interpretation of the Clean, Safe, Neat, and Beautiful Palembang City program. In addition to implementing the program Palembang EMAS.

Canal Grande of 7 is a revitalizing concept of the ideas offered here. The Grande Canal of 7 Ulu will be adapted to the conditions in Canal Grande, Venice, Italy. A cool atmosphere with exotic views will be presented around the canal and river in the area of 7 Ulu. In addition, this revitalization concept will also add some icons and elements that characterize the City of Palembang. This area will be one of the attractions in Palembang City because it is based on Palembang culture with a touch of Venetian atmosphere. Various aspects of the atmosphere filled with exotic value of the Grande Canal of 7 Ulu as a concept innovation of revitalization of the canal and river in the 7th region, namely: economic aspects (welfare), namely, ecology (environment) and beauty and comfort.

***

After waiting a long time, finally the announcement of PKM-GT on the internet arrived. Then I looked for my name among the many rows of names.

There are hundreds of student proposals from all over the country that have escaped. The selection of the committee is quite strict because there are several criteria that are determined.

As must be creative and objective is in the form of ideas that provide solutions. The writing should also be logical and systematic.

The assessment is also based on the uniqueness of the writing, the feasibility of implementation and the benefits or impacts caused.

After a while, I finally found my name among all the names. My group passed the selection and got a prize of three million rupiah despite not being included in PIMNAS.

I divided the money obtained to Girang and Rani because they also played a role in the completion of this paper.