Environmental laboratories to be upgraded
Environmental laboratories to be upgraded
JAKARTA (JP): The Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) will upgrade its environmental laboratories across the country to guarantee a standardized system of pollution control.
A meeting of laboratory staff, local government officials and officials of other related offices met here yesterday to discuss steps to be taken to strengthen and optimize the function of, as well as the coordination between, environmental laboratories outside of Java.
A similar meeting for laboratories in Java took place last August in Serpong, West Java.
State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja who opened the one-day meeting pointed out that once a so-called laboratory correlation system was established, it could act as sound back up for environmental laws since laboratory results could be used as solid evidence in pollution cases.
"It is also beneficial to private and government-owned industries that undoubtedly need to have a sound environmental management system," he said.
The existing environmental laboratories, which monitor and analyze factories and any pollution they may cause, are currently overseen by "technical" ministries, such as the ministry of industry and of public works.
There are currently 60 such laboratories in Indonesia, 47 of which are located outside Java.
Bapedal will provide the laboratories with the facilities and training needed to bring them up to meet national and international standards. The aid will be disbursed until the fiscal 1997-1998 period.
There is currently no established method of assessing a case of pollution -- especially one which has a direct impact on the people living around the polluted area -- thus polluting industries have a relatively big chance of getting away with environmental violations.
Presently, a laboratory analysis -- if performed -- would be carried out either by the industry's own laboratory or a private firm using varying standards, thus no legal punishment, such as a fine, can be imposed.
"The laboratory correlation will be made to the protocol, procedures and facilities of the laboratory and to the skills of the human resources," Sarwono said.
Bapedal, he added, did not intend to establish new laboratories but would focus more on upgrading existing ones.
Sarwono explained that as soon as the laboratories were correlated, they would be managed and monitored by Bapedal through its regional and local offices and, only if necessary, its central office.
Although the regional and local offices have yet to be established, Bapedal plans to have them set up by the end of the current five-year development plan in 1999.
Noegroho Hadi, a director at Bapedal, said that an Indonesian National Standard guidebook to perform a qualitative analysis of liquid waste has recently been issued.
It will be among the materials used by all environmental laboratories across the country.
Presently, he said, similar textbooks for hazardous and gas pollutants were being drafted.
"After the draft is approved by the National Standardization Board, it can be legalized as an official laboratory method which meets the Indonesian National Standard," he said.
Noegroho added that the Board's approval for the manual on hazardous and gas waste-analysis is expected to be obtained within the next few months and the guidebook distributed next year.(pwn)