Five firms in West Java sued for polluting

JAKARTA (JP): The North Jakarta District Court began hearing a lawsuit yesterday filed by 5,000 residents of Serang, West Java, against five factories on charges of polluting a river.

The companies, PT Indah Kiat Pulp and Paper, PT Cipta Paperia, PT Onward Paper Utama, PT Sekawan Maju Pesat and PT Picon Jaya, have allegedly polluted the Ciujung river.

The residents, represented by 17 people in the lawsuit, are seeking a court order which will force the five companies to conduct an environmental audit, as required by a 1991 law on the environment.

They are also seeking Rp 5 billion (US$2.2 million) in damages for immaterial losses resulting from "being deprived of the right to live in a clean and healthy environment" and Rp 22 billion for material losses in the form of lost income and extra expenses incurred for the acquisition of clean water.

They also asked the court to order the West Java Administration to establish an environmental monitoring team in the Serang regency, comprising representatives from the local administration, non-governmental organizations, local public figures and the companies.

They said in the lawsuit, filed on Aug. 14, that the pollution has worsened over a period of time and that they have tried to settle the dispute out of court, but to no avail.

The plaintiffs, who were represented by lawyers from the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Legal Institute, submitted as evidence a 1993 study on pollution along 15 kilometers of the Ciujung river conducted by the Center for Fisheries Research and Development of the Ministry of Agriculture. The research found that the river became heavily polluted after the establishment of the five companies in 1992. (imn)