Govt lacks facilities to settle mining disputes
Govt lacks facilities to settle mining disputes
JAKARTA (JP): The government is often unable to settle
pollution disputes between mining companies and local communities
and administrations due to a lack of laboratory facilities, a
senior official said.
A staff expert for environmental affairs at the Ministry of
Mines and Energy, Surna Tjahja Djajadiningrat, said on Monday the
Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) at the Ministry
of Environment had a laboratory in Serpong, West Java, to examine
industrial waste, including the tailings from mining companies,
but the laboratory's test results were unreliable.
"The laboratory has yet to be nationally and internationally
accredited," Djajadiningrat, a former top official at the
Ministry of Environment, said.
He said the Serpong laboratory was built "many years ago" with
funds provided by the Japanese government but Bapedal did not
seem committed to gaining national and international
accreditation.
Djajadiningrat said the Ministry of Mines and Energy would
hire internationally accredited laboratories to settle disputes
over pollution in the mining sector, including a current dispute
between gold mining company PT Newmont Minahasa Raya, a
subsidiary of American gold mining company Newmont, which
operates a gold mine in Ratatotok, North Sulawesi, and the local
community.
Local villagers, who mainly earn their living by fishing, have
accused Newmont of killing the fish in the nearby sea with its
tailings.
Minister of Mines and Energy Kuntoro Mangakusubroto said on
Friday he had formed a team, including the ministry's top
officials and officials from the Indonesian Forum for
Environment, to investigate the case.
Another Newmont subsidiary, PT Newmont Nusatenggara, which is
developing a large gold mine in Batuhijau on the island of
Lombok, West Nusatenggara, also has been accused of pollution by
locals.
Gold mining company PT Kelian Equatorial Mining, a subsidiary
of British-Australian mining company Rio Tinto, which operates a
gold mine in the Kutai district of East Kalimantan, also has
faced accusations of pollution.
The province's environmental office accused the company of
polluting the Kelian River with tailings containing mercury and
cyanide above the minimum level set by the government.
The company has put the lives of hundreds of families living
along the river in danger, the office said.
The province's environmental office referred to a test result
from Serpong laboratory in making its accusations.
Kelian, however, rejects Serpong laboratory's test results,
saying that tests performed by its own laboratory and two
independent laboratories prove the company has not polluted the
river.
Djajadiningrat said he would visit East Kalimantan to settle
the dispute between Kelian and the local administration. (jsk)