OCD Project Officer Ragil Sukriwul (white shirt) and several colleagues are seen about to remove the artificial coral reef at Uiasa Beach. Photo; Alfred/VN

Alfret Otu

OCD Beach and Cafe and several partners, namely the Pikul Association, Geng Motor Imut, CIS Timor, Kupang Batanam Community, Dalen Mesa Organic Farming Community, Tafena Tabua Association, Alfa Omega Foundation and Cemara Foundation released 60 packages of artificial coral reefs or bioreeftek at Uiasa beach in Semau District, Kupang Regency, East Nusa Tenggara.

Kupang OCD Director Obi Mesak, Friday (23/10) said that the release of the artificial coral reef was to preserve or maintain the coral reefs under the sea.

He said that previously the coral reefs in the Uiasa sea were numerous and beautiful, but because of frequent fish bombings by sailors, the coral reefs were damaged.

Apart from that, this was done to re-promote Uiasa Beach, which in the 90s was visited by many foreign tourists.

Uiasa Village is one of the prime tourist attractions in Kupang Bay, but after direct flights to Kupang, Darwin or Australia stopped due to the monetary crisis, all tourism sector businesses in Uiasa Village stopped and only the ruins of buildings or accommodations and bars and memories remained for the people of Uiasa Village.

According to him, Uiasa beach and coastline actually has a tourist attraction, especially underwater tourism such as diving and snorkeling, so OCD Beach and Cafe together with the village community launched or soft launched Uiasa Camp which became the momentum for the return of tourism in Uiasa Village.

The coast of Uiasa, he said, has a coral reef ecosystem that is worth exploring, but several parts of the coral reef in Uiasa have been damaged due to fishing using bombs and poisons, so to restore the integrity of the Uiasa coral reef, OCD Beach and Cafe is collaborating with Global Environmental Facilities-Small Grant Program (GEF SGP) phase VI for the Semau Island region, is carrying out the Uiasa ecotourism development project to revive tourism in Uiasa Village, which once flourished three decades ago.

For approximately 10 months, he said, together with the community, OCD Beach and Cafe collaborated to improve the nature of the Uiasa coast and develop a network of tourism service providers in Uiasa Village so that the nature of the Uiasa coast was maintained and the village community received direct benefits from tourism.

This activity, he explained, was carried out involving the Uiasa youth group from the time it was made to the immersion of the bioreeftek in the sea. Apart from that, OCD together with volunteers accompany groups of school children in learning English and introducing themselves to the environment to prepare local tour guides.

Meanwhile, OCD Project Officer Ragil Sukriwul said that mothers were also trained in simple English so they could communicate with foreign tourists, apart from cooking training for groups of mothers using local ingredients, a tourist camping ground managed by the community in Uiasa with toilet facilities had been provided. It is also prepared with attraction facilities such as snorkeling, diving and canoeing.

The coastal tourist attractions, he said, that tourists can enjoy when visiting the Uiasa Ecotourism Village are quite diverse. Uiasa Beach, with a wide stretch of white sand stretching for about one kilometer, is the only beach on the coast of Semau Island where swimming, snorkeling and diving can be done. (bev/ol)

https://www.victorynews.id/ocd-dan-delapan-mitra-lepas-60-paket-terumbu-karang-buatan/