Palembang Plumbing...or lack thereof

Palembang is polluted. Not in the same way that China was. The air is much better in Palembang than in Shijiazhuang, but nowhere near as good as the crystal clear Adirondack air. No, Palembang is covered in a not-so-fine layer of plastic bags and general garbage. They haven't figured out city-wide plumbing yet, so there are open sewers and gutters everywhere. The smell is indescribable.

 The road near my school. A rather narrow, but still pungent gutter example

Please bear in mind that this city is ancient. Wikipedia tells me that it is one of the oldest cities in Indonesia. It was formed organically over hundreds of years. Many of the roads twist, turn, and end without warning.  It would be a civil engineer's worst nightmare to try and figure out a centralized  system.

Some websites claim Palembang to be "The Venice of the East." If you take this to mean that Palembang is an elegant and tourist filled metropolis then you are incorrect.  This is absolutely true if you know that this is referring to the fact that in Palembang, when it rains, it floods, creating canals out of the usually dry roads. Here are some pictures of the second time when I was stuck in a flood.