RI's pollution control reflects only half truth of things<\/p>\n
By Jaseentha L. D'silva<\/p>\n
BANDUNG (JP): There can be little doubt that Indonesia's
\nimpressive economic growth rates over the last three decades have
\ngiven it a place among the most successful developing economies
\nin the world today.<\/p>\n
Its success, however, has not come without its problems. This
\nis clearly evidenced by Indonesia's continuing struggle to strike
\na judicious balance between economic growth and protection of its
\nenvironment.<\/p>\n
With a lean towards industrialization and manufacturing
\nindustries to facilitate national growth and development, the
\ncountry faces some of the most critical challenges associated
\nwith pollution control.<\/p>\n
Effective measures aimed at industrial pollution control must,
\nin the first place, be based on the magnitude of the pollution
\nproblem itself. Policies must reflect the true nature of the
\nproblem. But trying to determine just how critical the problem of
\nindustrial pollution really is in Indonesia has itself been
\nfraught with both technical and institutional difficulties.<\/p>\n
Although extensive research efforts have already been made to
\nascertain industrial pollution levels in Indonesia, only a small
\nproportion of those efforts have been able to generate reliable
\ndata.<\/p>\n
Part of the problem lies in the issues traditionally
\nassociated with pollution control in developing countries --
\ninsufficient knowledge, skills and technology to tackle the issue
\nat hand.<\/p>\n
In industrialized countries, most of the input data for
\ncalculating industrial pollution levels is based on the data of
\nindividual firms, which is normally available in government
\ndepartments.<\/p>\n
Firms are required by very stringent regulations to disclose
\nnecessary data on their pollution discharge levels to government
\non a regular basis. The data is very often subject to
\nverification by government officials using standard procedures.
\nPollution levels are then calculated using the verified data.<\/p>\n
In the case of Indonesia, the approach used to determine
\npollution levels involves a heavy reliance by government on firms
\nto provide very accurate data.<\/p>\n
For the Indonesian government, the sheer number of
\nmanufacturing firms operating in Indonesia has greatly
\nexacerbated the problem of creating a large enough pool of
\nexpertise to provide assistance to firms in gathering the
\nrequired pollution data.<\/p>\n
Added to this is the problem of fluid shifts in manufacturing
\nemphasis necessitating continual corresponding shifts in
\nexpertise to keep up with new growth trends within the sector.<\/p>\n
That said, accurate levels of pollution are without a doubt
\ndifficult to determine: So pollution control policies, at their
\nbest, only partially reflect the true nature of things.<\/p>\n
Even bearing in mind this general problem, what data is
\navailable on pollution, coupled with statistics on growth trends,
\nclearly demonstrates the critical state of things.<\/p>\n
In the last 20-year period alone, national industrial output
\nmultiplied eight-fold and the World Bank estimates that it will
\nexpand another 13-fold by the year 2020.<\/p>\n
Contributions to national output from the heavily-polluting
\nmanufacturing sector grew from 13 percent in the 1970s to 23
\npercent in the 1980s, with a projected overall share of 33
\npercent in the 1990s and 45 percent in the decade following it.<\/p>\n
Although World Bank projections suggest that the likely
\ngradual shifts in the sectoral composition of the manufacturing
\nsector from the more polluting processing industries to the less
\npolluting assembly-type industries will help decrease the levels
\nof certain pollutants, this shift will still not be sufficient to
\noff-set the pollution generated by the overall rapid increase in
\nindustrial output.<\/p>\n
Such a shift in the manufacturing sector of Java, for example,
\nwhich is home to about 70 percent of all manufacturing industry,
\nwill only manage to achieve a 10-percent drop in overall
\nindustrial pollution share between now and 2020.<\/p>\n
But the reality of the pollution crisis is best captured by
\nlooking at the projections for the absolute levels of industrial
\npollution. Assuming everything else is held constant, the Bank
\nestimates that Java's absolute pollution level, despite changes
\nto the sectoral composition of its manufacturing industry, will
\nincrease to 10 times its current level over the same period.<\/p>\n
Taking into account that many of the industries which are
\ncurrently expanding are those which tend to generate some of the
\nmost toxic kinds of pollutants, projected figures for industrial
\npollution levels only tell part of the story behind the pollution
\ndilemma.<\/p>\n
For example, 40 percent of the total pollution in Indonesia's
\nrivers is thought to originate from industrial sources. However,
\nthis figure does not account for the concentrations of many toxic
\nwastes such as mercury and chromium discharged by firms.<\/p>\n
Not only is this an example of a conservative estimate of
\npollution levels, but it in no way reflects the far more harmful
\nindustrial pollutants that are increasingly being discharged. And
\ngiven industrial growth trends and projections for Indonesia,
\nWorld Bank data suggests that such bio-accumulative metals can be
\nexpected to be 50-times higher in 2020 than their levels in 1980.<\/p>\n
Thus it is particularly important that results of future
\nresearch on pollution capture, not only the real magnitude of the
\nproblem, but the intensification of the pollution crisis as well.<\/p>\n
The writer is attached to the Center for Environmental Studies
\nat the Bandung Institute of Technology.<\/p>",
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