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)