'Bintan island facing serious environmental damage'

'Bintan island facing serious environmental damage'

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Bintan island is facing serious environmental damage as a number
of firms have shifted their sand quarrying from the sea to the
island, State Minister of the Environment Nabiel Makarim has
said.

The sand excavated from the island goes mostly to Singapore,
the regular destination of sea sand from Indonesia.

"When businessmen cannot export sea sand to Singapore, they
move their operations to Bintan island and cause environmental
destruction," Nabiel said on Friday.

This included land degradation, he said, while photographs
from his office showed plant extinction and unmanaged waste from
sand quarrying operations.

"We are still investigating whether or not their operations
are legal and how they obtained approval for their environmental
impact assessments (Amdals)," Nabiel said.

According to data from the Office of the State Minister for
the Environment, over 50 sand quarrying companies operate on
Bintan island, with each having concessions of five to 75
hectares.

Nabiel went on to say that his staff witnessed vessels from
Bintan island transporting sand to Singapore.

"We witnessed it only three weeks ago ...," he said.

In January this year, the government completely banned sand
exports from Riau to Singapore to curb illegal sand quarrying
that had seriously damaged the province's marine environment.

The ban on sand exports was the toughest measure taken by the
government after it limited sand exports to Singapore several
times last year.

Some of the small islets in the province have reportedly
subsided due to illegal quarrying of sea sand.

The province has also suffered about Rp 2.5 trillion (US$277
million) in losses since illegal sand quarrying began in the
1980s.

Riau's sand was sold at S$1.5 (Rp 7,500) per cubic meter (cu
m) to international brokers who then sold it to Singapore
construction firms at S$15 per cu m.

Another reason for the ban on sand exports to Singapore was
concern over the increase in the extent of Singapore's territory,
as the neighboring country has used sand to reclaim land from the
sea.

Riau, the country's main sand exporter, has been exporting
sand to neighboring Singapore for many years to support the city
state's construction sector and coastal reclamation projects.

Singapore is estimated to need some 1.8 billion cubic meters
of sand over the next seven years.