Dilemma caused by sand quarrying at Mt. Merapi<\/p>\n
Mimin Dwi Hartono, Contributor, Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
It was 1 p.m. in Boyong hamlet, Hargobinangun village, Pakem
\nsubdistrict, Sleman, at the foot of Mount Merapi.<\/p>\n
The sun shone very brightly, while the heat was at its peak.<\/p>\n
Sunarto, 63, a Boyong villager, paused for a while from
\ndigging sand in his yard with a shovel. Taking a deep breath, he
\nwiped the sweat from his wrinkled face before sitting next to his
\nshovel on the ground.<\/p>\n
\"I'm forced to do this because I have no other way to support
\nmy family,\" Sunarto said.<\/p>\n
Although quarrying sand on personal property has been banned
\nby the village administration for some time because of the
\nenvironmental damage that the activity can cause, many of the
\nvillagers there, including Sunarto, continue to do it, mostly for
\nfinancial reasons.<\/p>\n
Sunarto, for example, has been quarrying sand on his 600
\nsquare meter plot for three years, attracted mainly by the quick
\nreturns that he can gain.<\/p>\n
From sand extraction, Sunarto can earn Rp 35,000 per truck,
\nwhich would normally take two to three days to load. With a truck
\nof sand every three days, he has been able to earn some Rp 4.2
\nmillion a year, or nearly Rp 13 million over three years.<\/p>\n
That has enabled him to send his children to high school and,
\nmost importantly, helped him support his family.<\/p>\n
The activity, however, has left his land with craters that are
\n10 meters to 20 meters deep. The trees on it have fallen over.
\nThe same thing has also occurred on neighboring properties.<\/p>\n
Sunarto, and others, though, say that they do not regret their
\ndecision. \"I'm glad we extracted it ourselves instead of selling
\nthe land; we earned money from it while at the same time
\nretaining ownership of the land,\" Sunarto said.<\/p>\n
Hargobinangun is not the only village on the southern slopes
\nof the volcano where sand quarrying is rampant. Other villages,
\nsuch as Umbulharjo, Purwobinangun, and Wonokerto face exactly the
\nsame problem.<\/p>\n
In Boyong alone, there are at least 52 places where sand is
\nquarried on private land, ranging from hundreds to thousands of
\nsquare meters, while in Umbulharjo there are some 35 spots.<\/p>\n
Sand quarrying is a complex problem in which the wider concern
\nto preserve the environment is in direct opposition to people's
\nindividual concern to earn money to cover their basic needs.<\/p>\n
So critical is the problem that such activities often incite
\nconflict between local communities that are concerned about the
\nenvironment and property owners as well as quarry workers.<\/p>\n
What happened last April near the Boyong River is an example.<\/p>\n
Dozens of people from the neighboring village of West
\nKaliurang staged a demonstration, demanding that workers stop
\nquarrying immediately because it had damaged the riverbank that
\ndirectly borders West Kaliurang.<\/p>\n
West Kaliurang villagers were concerned because the riverbank
\nwas only 50 meters away from people's houses.<\/p>\n
Consequently, Hargobinangun village head Mulyono asked the
\nowners of the 52 quarrying spots to halt their activities. He
\nalso promised to seek better alternatives for them to make a
\nliving. Still, some ignored his request.<\/p>\n
\"We have yet to arrive at an acceptable solution,\" explained
\nSupar, a villager who wished to continue.<\/p>\n
The dangers of uncontrolled quarrying are quite apparent to
\nall. Although most use only manual equipment like shovel or
\ncrowbars, they can dig to a depth of 20 meters.<\/p>\n
Moreover, as many of the quarrying sites are also within
\nhousing complexes, some houses are also prone to subsidence
\nbecause the edge of the digging site is sometimes only five
\nmeters away from the buildings.<\/p>\n
That excludes countless trees that have fallen due to the
\nactivities.<\/p>\n
The most tragic occurrence was some three years ago, when a
\nlandslide buried Dalinem, a housewife, alive while she was
\nquarrying sand on her land.<\/p>\n
According to Boyong village chief Sokimun, 63, quarrying in
\nhis area started in 1990. Yet, he said, he felt unable to tell
\npeople to stop because they were on their own property.<\/p>\n
\"I feel uneasy about it,\" Sokimun said.<\/p>\n
However, he added, the most difficult thing was that no viable
\nalternative had been identified. All he could do was to persuade
\nlocals not to use machinery.<\/p>\n
A recent solution, eventually, came from the Hargobinangun
\nadministration and Sleman regental mining office. They offered
\nloans for people to buy dairy cows, with a repayment period of up
\nto four years.<\/p>\n
The regental forestry and agriculture office, similarly, has
\nalso offered villagers rolling funds to buy sheep to breed.<\/p>\n
Take-up has been patchy, though, especially for loans to buy
\ndairy cows that offer an interest rate of 12 percent a year, as
\nthe rate is perceived as too high.<\/p>\n
Sheep breeding, similarly, is unattractive, as it cannot
\nprovide a quick return.<\/p>\n
It seems that the local authorities have much to do; they must
\npersuade locals to halt their environmentally damaging
\nactivities, and make them realize that, in the long term, damage
\nto the environment is much more costly than the value of the sand
\nthey could quarry.<\/p>",
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