Bira environment study still being considered

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Surjadi Soedirdja denied yesterday reports which said that the city administration has accepted, with annotation, the results of an environmental impact analysis on the controversial Bira island.

The governor explained that the environmental impact analysis commission only accepted the document of the analysis but did not make any decision on it.

The commission had a meeting on Friday to evaluate a study, conducted on the environmental condition of the island. It was the fourth meeting held by the commission regarding the Bira Island case. The commission turned down the analysis for the development of a golf course project on the island for the third time last February because the report failed to meet the set standard.

An environmental impact assessment must be carried out before a developer can obtain permission for any development project.

Aboejoewono Aboeprajitno, head of the City Environment Office, and the commission's secretary, said over the weekend that the commission has now accepted the developer's environmental impact study of Bira Island with certain qualifications.

"We accept the Bira Island environmental analysis on certain conditions -- we haven't accepted it whole," Aboejoewono said.

"The developer, for example, should make some changes to the study. The commission has given the consulting firm two weeks to revise the analysis," he added.

The consulting firm, PT Consartha Indomartha, has agreed to revise the analysis within the two weeks allowed.

However, these remarks were denied by the governor. "It is not true that the city has accepted the results of the analysis. I have asked the commission about the matter and its officials told me that they were only accepting the document of the analysis and that they have not made any decision," Surjadi told reporters at City Hall yesterday.

Asked when the decision on the island will be made, the governor said that his office will process the report as soon as possible.

Yesterday, a member of the City Council's Indonesian Democracy Party faction, Romulus Sihombing, urged the commission to tell the truth about the results of Friday's meeting.

"Don't make any statement which could cause confusion among the people. If no decision was made over the study, don't say the opposite because this is a sensitive matter. Even the President is interested in the matter," Romulus said.

He said the commission should also give clear facts and explain the process of the meeting, and its results, to the governor.

"After that, report the results to the public, so as to make them understand the problem clearly," he added. (yns/31)