Indonesia Climate Change: Eco-mosques helping to spread the importance of going green

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Indonesia's largest religious organization has teamed up with the government to launch a program that requires all mosques to become environmentally friendly. The program aims to create awareness among the country's Muslim population and eventually beyond. CGTN's Silkina Ahluwalia reports.

Hayu Prabowo has always been passionate about the environment. That passion led him to create Indonesia's first eco-mosque.

It's part of an initiative launched by the country's Vice President. By 2020, Hayu, with the help of the government, hopes to establish more than 1,000 eco-mosques around the country.

The program is led by Indonesia's Ulema Council, one of the country's top religious organizations. They will work closely with private sectors, universities and the health ministry to inspire environmental awareness amongst communities.

HAYU PRABOWO ECO-MOSQUE INITIATOR "This initiative has to be successful or else Indonesia will not be able to survive. Globally, there are 11 cities that are facing a water crisis such as Cape Town and Jakarta could experience that as well so if we don't manage our water well we could be in trouble. Eco-mosque would tremendously help to decrease the oncoming water and energy crisis."

The initiative will encourage mosques to use renewable energy, reduce and recycle waste and provide strong environmental education.

This is one of their eco-friendly infrastructures, where rainwater is used as the main source of water in the mosque. This tank filters out the rain, in return providing clean water for showering and cooking.

SILKINA AHLUWALIA JAKARTA, INDONESIA "Indonesia is home to large areas of rainforests, peatlands and mangroves. Unfortunately, the country does not have the best environmental record. As industries expand, those forests are rapidly disappearing."

And that makes this program all the more important.

This isn't the first time the Ulema Council has taken a serious stance on environmental issues. Back in 2016, the organization issued religious decrees against illegal forest fires.

TITO ARIBOWO, RESEARCH OFFICER GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL INDONESIA "A mosque is not only a place for worship, a mosque is also a place for studying, for education so it will be a very good opportunity to spread the green message and we need to use a lot of water for Wudhu."

By instilling a love of nature among worshippers, this program acts as an important movement to unite Indonesians to fight the threats of climate change.

Silkina Ahluwalia, CGTN, Jakarta.