'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.