Environmentalists lament no action against polluters

Environmentalists lament no action against polluters

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): Environmentalists yesterday lauded the
government for naming the domestic companies that pollute rivers,
but lamented the lack of follow-up legal action.

Emmy Hafild of the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi),
Mas Achmad Santosa of the Indonesian Center for Environmental
Law, and Suwiryo Ismail of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation
all expressed their disappointment that no strong action had been
taken against companies polluting the rivers.

"The lack of legal action is a Bapedal weakness," one of the
activists said, referring to the Environmental Impact Management
Agency (Bapedal), the government's environmental watchdog, which
announced on Wednesday the names of domestic companies causing
river pollution.

Companies were rated either "gold", "green", "blue", "red" or
"black" in descending order, for their efforts toward protecting
the environment. Out of the 120 companies evaluated, only one
company was awarded a "green", none a "gold", six were "black-
listed", 80 were categorized "red", and the remaining 33 were
given a "blue" rating.

"It is the government's responsibility, not the community's,
to take legal action against those companies," Emmy told The
Jakarta Post yesterday.

The companies, especially the worst offenders who were rated
"black," should be taken to court. "Social punishment is not
enough," she said.

"The companies do not care about the environment or the local
communities who suffer from the pollution. They only care about
making profits, they should be ordered to make amends and to
restore the damaged environment," said Emmy.

State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, who
chairs Bapedal, has said the ratings cannot be used as a legal
weapon for suing environmental polluters. Instead, the ratings
are to inform people affected by pollution and help them to
initiate legal action against the offenders.

Emmy acknowledged the agency's limitations but suggested that
the limitations be addressed by giving the agency the authority
to pursue legal action.

Mas Achmad Santosa and Suwiryo called on the agency to
investigate options for initiating legal action against the
companies.

"The agencies homework will be to discover ways of increasing
its powers to take legal action," Achmad told the Post.

Suwiryo said the absence of legal action against the companies
demonstrated a lack of coordination, a lack of political will
from the government and the inadequacies of the legal system in
handling environmental problems.

He criticized the agency for employing evaluation processes
which failed to involve the communities whose lives were most
affected by pollution.