Govt mulls relocating fishermen from contaminated Buyat Bay
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Rokhmin Dahuri said on Wednesday that the government was considering plans to relocate hundreds of fishermen from Buyat Bay, North Sulawesi, following reports of chemical contamination there.
"We are planning to move them to a nearby area, but it depends on whether local people are willing to leave their homes or not," he told journalists.
Rokhmin said if local fishermen rejected the relocation plans, the government would offer them more adequate equipment, so they could go further out from the coast to fish.
The government is to make a final decision on the plan after investigations into the alleged pollution at the bay are complete, by Aug. 16 at the latest, he said.
Local people have complained about chemical contamination at Buyat Bay, South Minahasa regency, that had resulted in a sharp drop in their catch.
Accompanied by environmental activists and a doctor, several South Minahasa villagers recently flew to Jakarta to report American gold mining firm PT Newmont Minahasa Raya to the National Police for polluting the bay.
In another development on Wednesday, National Police director of special crimes Brig. Gen. Suharto said the department would soon announce findings of its team's probe into the alleged mercury contamination in Buyat Bay.
"We hope the laboratory test will be finished by tomorrow. Only then can we determine the extent of contamination in the bay. From what I have observed in the field, there is certainly some contamination," he said.
Suharto said after determining the level of contamination, the police would continue their investigation to find out whether the pollution was caused by Newmont or others.
The follow-up probe is also aimed at determining whether the level of the contamination endangered human lives, he added.
The police sent an investigative team to Buyat Bay, where it took samples of water, fish, soil and other materials for testing in Jakarta.
Suharto said the results of blood tests on Buyat victims by experts from state universities, non-governmental organizations and the Jakarta Health Agency would be included as legal evidence for a possible criminal case.
The health agency's test on July 28 found a dangerously high presence of mercury in Buyat villager Rasyid Rahmat, 38, at 52.50 micrograms per liter (ug/L). Others who showed high intravenous mercury levels are: Sri Fika Modeong, one year and nine months, at 51.25 ug/L; Juhria Ratumbahe, 42, at 38.75 ug/L; and Masna Stiman, 39, at 33.75 ug/L.
The World Health Organization (WHO) sets the normal level of mercury at 8 ug/L.
Earlier, a similar test by the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Indonesia showed mercury levels for Rasyid, Sri Fika, Juhria and Masna at between 9.51 ug/L and 23.90 u/L.
Although the tests confirmed a mercury content high above the norm, they are still far from the Minamata level of 300 to 500 ug/L.
Suharto said the police were to meet on Thursday a Japanese expert from the National Institute for Minamata Disease and a WHO specialist -- who are conducting independent research into the bay -- for more evidence.