Environment body slams Lake Toba regreening policy

Environment body slams Lake Toba regreening policy

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

The Indonesian Environmental Association (PLHI) has slammed
the North Sumatra administration, saying that it had not properly
used the fund the central government had allocated for the Lake
Toba regreening program.

It has had a regreening program every year, but it hasn't
resulted in anything, PLHI deputy chief Effendi Santonius
Napitupulu told The Jakarta Post here last Saturday, after
attending a ceremony to declare PLHI as a new environmental
organization in the Danau Toba Convention Hall in Medan.

The newly-established organization is chaired by Taufik
Kiemas, the husband of President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Based on information from a survey conducted by the Ministry
of Forestry and the Bandung-based Pajajaran University in 1998,
from the total 230,000 hectares of land surrounding Lake Toba,
some 163,000 hectares were already in a critical condition.

Currently, Effendi said, the condition of the lake was very
worrying. Its water surface has dropped by 2.4 meters as a result
of being used to generate energy for the hydropower plants of
Sigura-gura and Sampuran Harimau.

The lake also experienced an erosion of about 8,475 cubic
meters per year.

Given such a condition, Effendi said that the government would
need about 15 years to regreen the area and would need to spend
about Rp 650 billion to buy about 65 million tree seedlings for
the area.

According to him, the erosion was due to the uncontrolled
felling of trees in the lake's catchment area.

Deputy chairman of Regional Environmental Impact Management
Agency (Bapedalda), Tigor Hutagalung said factors affecting the
condition of the lake were very complex.

He admitted that serious denudation of the land around the
lake had ruined the water cycle in the lake. "The water cycle in
the area has been damaged so that its water surface has continued
to decrease every year," he said.

Tigor also said that water pollution, which was mostly caused
by factories and hotels, had passed a tolerable level.

He cited an example of PT Algrindo as one of the factories
polluting the lake, saying its water treatment facility does not
function well. "We plan to take it to court. We're in the process
of collecting the data needed for legal action," he said.

He said that as a follow-up to the regreening campaign, which
was launched by President Megawati Soekarnoputri on March 3 in
Medan, the province would set up the Lake Toba Ecosystem
coordinating board involving the heads of all the five regencies
around the lake.

"They will design a policy needed to conserve the lake," he
said.

PLHI said that the North Sumatra administration should make a
special environmental policy for Lake Toba to prevent pollution
in and around the lake.

"The government should be determined to take such a step.
Otherwise, the beauty of the lake, which is a natural wonder,
will become merely a memory," said Effendi.