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How a dirty and polluted pond became an underwater Instagram hit

Umbul Ponggok has been transformed from a dirty pond to an Instagrammer's favourite - iStock
Umbul Ponggok has been transformed from a dirty pond to an Instagrammer's favourite - iStock

Tourists are flocking to an Indonesian village to take underwater Instagram photos in a pond previously suffocating from pollution.

Villagers in Ponggok in Klaten, Central Java, previously used the pond to bathe and wash their clothes. By the mid-2000s it was dirty and covered in thick moss.

But today social media users stage creative, underwater photographs and videos in Umbul Ponggok. Entrance to the water park is 15.000 rupiah/£0.83 per person.

They can pay an extra 60,000 rupiah/£3.33 to hire underwater cameras and be photographed with props. Snorkelling and diving are also offered.

Visitors’ artistic snaps and videos are shared on the Umbul Ponggok Instagram account, which has more than 40,000 followers.

Props are put to good use with subjects posing on bikes, scooters, motorbikes, in front of a television and next to a tent while surrounded by fish.

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo even shared a photograph a visitor had taken at the attraction.

In 2006 Junaedi Mulyono was elected village head. He saw business potential in the pond and set about turning it into a tourist attraction.

First he asked students from Gadjah Mada University, in the city of Yogyakarta, to visit the village and document the village’s problems, resources and possible solutions in a database.

Using this information, Mulyono started a village-owned business called Tirta Mandiri and asked locals to invest in it.

"Initially, many residents were reluctant to invest, but after seeing the development of the pond, they changed their minds,” Mulyono told the South China Morning Post.

After some initial misgivings, many locals agreed and now own around 40 per cent of shares in Umbul Ponggok. The remainder are held by the village government.

Some 430 of the village’s 700 families invested in the scheme, according to the newspaper. For the past 10 years, each has received a share of the profits.

The village started work on improving the pond in 2011. They cleaned it and removed the moss that had built up. Mulyono, a fish farmer, stocked the pond with koi.

Villagers then built public bathrooms and set up food stalls close to the pond, with kiosks selling fish food.

From 2015 Ponggok has used central government funding to clean up and improve other aspects of the village, from creating fish ponds to building paths and roads.

Where once the village faced high unemployment, today Tirta Mandiri provides work and income for many of its residents.

Umbul Ponggok is 20 by 50 metres and up to 2.5 metres deep. More than 40 natural springs flow into it.

Ponggok’s success has led the Indonesian government to list it as one of 10 model villages in the country.

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