Buyat people differ on alleged pollution

Harry Bhaskara and Jongker Rumteh, The Jakarta Post, Buyat/Manado/North Sulawesi

This is the second article in a series on Buyat. The serenity and scenic beauty of Buyat village's surroundings conceal deep divisions among the villagers. Ask them about the alleged pollution in Buyat Bay, and their answers are unlikely to leave you much the wiser.

Some villagers say they believe the bay has been contaminated by the nearby gold mining operation of PT Newmont Minahasa Raya, but others say there is no pollution problem.

It follows that some villagers then say they are suffering from headaches, cramps in their legs and arms, spasms, swelling, skin diseases and tumors, while others say they have no such complaints.

The controversy has been going on for more than a year with the Indonesian government now suing Newmont over the alleged pollution.

However, the confusion is not confined solely to the pollution question. The villagers are not even sure in which regency they live.

"Many of us have two residential identity cards," said Busrin, 39, a fisherman, "one from Minahasa Selatan and the other Bolaang Mongondow."

The two regencies, he said, claim that the village lies within their respective jurisdictions.

Worse still, title to the land where the village is located is claimed by a landowner, according to Justinus Widodo, Newmont's manager for government, community relations and the environment.

Soleman Ponigoro, 24, said the bay was polluted and this explained the "strange" illness he had been suffering from for the last eight months.

"I used to get sudden headaches which prevented me from going to the sea," said the fisherman, who said he had lived in the village for ten years.

Soleman said his wife, Laksmi Makalalag, 23, had suffered from a variety of illnesses for a year, including nausea and occasional spasms, cramps and headaches.

Rahima Jumadi, 34, had another theory. She said she also often suffered from cramps, but it was due to high levels of uric acid.

"Whenever I eat kangkung (a type of vegetable) and beans, I get cramps in my feet because of an increase in my uric acid level," she said, adding that she had been told this by a doctor.

Now she only eats cabbage and pitsai, she said.

Jean Rorong, 34, said she had been suffering from a similar ailment since 2000.

"Sometimes my arm joints ache so badly I cannot work," said Jean, who said she had been living in Buyat village since 1982.

"My problem still hasn't been cured completely," she said.

Newmont started its operation in Buyat in 1996 and closed it down in 2004 as scheduled.

Rahima said she occasionally suffered from aches in her arm joints, but that is because she worked with ice for hours at a time during the night.

"When my husband comes back from fishing after midnight, I put ice into the fish container, and that causes occasional aching in my arms as it is very cold at night," she said, adding she was sure the aching was due to working with ice.

Most fishermen's wives in Buyat, she said, used ice to keep fish fresh before it was sold in the market.

Ani Modeong, 29, said her son Valentine, 4, had a lump as big as a corn cob on his neck and another one behind his left ear.

A local doctor told her that the lumps were caused by an inflammation of the thyroid gland, she said.

"His skin looks like the skin of an old man and he has suffered from itching ever since he was born," said Ani.

"All the children who like to swim at Buyat beach suffer from skin problems and inflammation," Ani said.

Rahima did not agree.

"My children and their friends also like to swim in the bay, but nothing has ever happened to them," she said.

Jean and Ani said they had given up eating fish from Buyat Bay years ago, but not Rahima.

"We have been eating fish since we were children. Why should we stop eating it? If we don't eat fish, we won't have energy," Rahima said.

She added that the local doctor had never urged villagers to stop eating fish from the bay.

"The villagers are afraid to eat fish because they were told not to do so by Dr. Rignolda, who is the head of the Kelola Foundation in Manado, who said that fish from the bay is dangerous," Rahima said.

Fishermen Busrin, 39, and Salamun, 40, said they still ate fish from the bay and had never suffered any ill effects.

"It is strange that those who continue to eat fish from the bay never get ill while those who did not get all these illnesses," said Busrin.

Busrin and Salamun were among five villagers who received loans to buy outboard motors for their fishing boats. (see box)

The head of the local community clinic, Dr. Sandra Rotti, told The Jakarta Post that the illnesses suffered by the villagers in Buyat were the same ailments as were suffered by other villagers in the region.

"They are not related to the alleged pollution in the bay," said Sandra, who has been working in Buyat since 1999.