Plastic waste clogs a canal which drains in to a tributary of the Citarum river on August 27, 2018 in small village outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. Despite the fact that the Citarum River has been named the world’s most polluted river by the World Bank, around 28 million people in Indonesia depend on it for irrigation and electricity – as well as nearly 80 percent of the capital city’s water supply. Based on reports, more than 20,000 tons of waste and 340,000 tons of wastewater are disposed of directly into the waterways of the third-biggest river in Java every day from thousands of textile factories, killing nearly 60 percent of the river’s fish species and causing health problems for people who live along the banks of the polluted river. In recent years, the Indonesian government has vowed to clean the Citarum River as studies from environmental groups had found that levels of lead in the river reached 1,000 times the U.S. standard for drinking water, but the problem has persisted due to the lack of coordination, maintenance and enforcement. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





Water dirtied by factory waste plunges through a natural rock formation cluttered with some of the thousands of tons of plastic waste dumped into the Citarum river on August 27, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





A man separates different kinds of plastic, which he will later sell, recycled from the Citarum river on August 27, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





A thick black toxic stew bubbles up from the depths of the Citarum river on August 28, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





20 years worth of plastic trash fished out of the Citarum river sits at a dumpsite now being monitored by the Indonesian Army on August 28, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





Water dirtied by factory waste plunges through a natural rock formation cluttered with some of the thousands of tons of plastic waste dumped into the Citarum river on August 27, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





Factory waste including dyes from the many textile factories in the region stain a jackfruit and discarded cloth on a tributary of the Citarum river on August 27, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





Factory waste including dyes from the many textile factories in the region drain into a tributary of the Citarum river on August 27, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





A boy collecting plastic waste to sell navigates water made black by industrial pollution on the Citarum river on August 28, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





Plastic trash lies by the side of a small stream which drains into the Citarum River August 28, 2018 outside Majalaya, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





Children walk through a rice paddy overlooking the dozens of textile mills which have been using the Citarum River to dump their waste water on August 28, 2018 outside Majalaya, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





Factory waste drains into a tributary of the Citarum river on August 27, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





A man paddles his boat along the heavily polluted Citarum river on August 28, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





A dead fish sits among plastic trash along the banks of the Citarum river on August 27, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





A man climbs the steep banks of the Citarum river with man a bag full of plastic trash which he has scavenged from the Citarum on August 27, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





A farmer walks along his rice paddy which sits along a heavily polluted tributary of the Citarum river on August 27, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





A man separates different kinds of plastic, which he will later sell, recycled from the Citarum river on August 28, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)





Factory waste drains into a tributary of the Citarum river on August 27, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)