Environmentalists sue paper companies for river pollution
Environmentalists sue paper companies for river pollution
JAKARTA (JP): The Legal Aid Institute (LBH) office in Surabaya has filed separate lawsuits in the Surabaya district court against three pulp and paper companies in the area, accusing them of polluting the Surabaya River.
LBH is acting on behalf of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) in the lawsuits against the three companies, identified, by Antara, only by the letters PT Mek, PT Sup, and PT SAI.
Indro Sugianto, the LBH lawyer handling the cases, told reporters that the pollution of the Surabaya river had become worse over the past two decades with no real attempt made, on the part of local manufacturers, to improve the situation.
Indro said contamination of the river got so bad at one time that the processing plant of the local drinking water company (PDAM) had to cease operations. "PDAM customers have also been complaining about the quality of their tap water from PDAM."
He said that the current lawsuit against the pulp and paper manufacturers will be followed by others to be filed by Walhi.
LBH has found that 41 factories are discharging their waste into the river, he said. Besides paper and pulp, other riverside industries include textiles, synthetic chemicals, detergent soaps, steel, metal finishing, porcelain, ceramics and food processing.
Before filing the lawsuits against the paper manufacturers, LBH collected evidence from PDAM Surabaya, talked to its customers, and discussed the issue with local government and the police, Indro said.
LBH also has data from laboratory tests on the quality of water from the river, he said.
In the lawsuits, Walhi is demanding that the companies undergo environmental audits and announce the findings to the public, and build a waste processing center which, it says, to be managed by an independent body.
He said meeting the demands is the least that the companies can do after years of neglecting their responsibility to look after the environment. (29)