Govt told to focus on finding source of contamination
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Several non-governmental organizations (NGO) urged the government on Friday to focus on finding the source of contamination in Buyat Bay in Minahasa, North Sulawesi, instead of ordering more research on top of the already abundant test results.
The Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) demanded that the government take action based on police findings that the bay had been polluted.
ICEL executive director Indro Sugianto said the government's move to establish another team to analyze Buyat Bay was a way to disregard the results of police's laboratory tests.
"The government should follow up on the police findings. The appropriate thing to do would be to find the source of contamination because the police have clearly concluded that the bay is polluted," said Indro.
Police announced last Friday that both Totok and Buyat bays were polluted by heavy metals.
National Police director of specific crimes Brig. Gen. Suharto explained on Monday that the bigger Totok Bay had allegedly been polluted by illegal miners, who had mined there for quite a long time using mercury to separate gold from other minerals.
He added that the smaller Buyat Bay nearby, however, was clear of illegal miners, and the only mining company operating there was PT Newmont Minahasa Raya.
Laboratory tests by the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the University of Indonesia showed earlier that mercury levels in the blood of Buyat residents identified as Sri Fika, Juhria, Masna and Rasyid ranged from 9.51 microgram/liter (u/L) to 23.90 ug/L.
Tests by the Jakarta Health Agency laboratory on July 28 also revealed that the four Buyat residents had high mercury levels in their blood, ranging from 33 u/L to 53 u/L.
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar, however, said on Friday that the government had agreed to form a joint team involving the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of the Environment, the National Police and several NGOs to conduct laboratory tests on samples taken from Buyat Bay.
"As a result of the meeting at the Office of the Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare, we decided to wait for the results of a joint team's investigation because during the meeting different results from other ministries emerged," said Da'i.
He said the police would use their own test results as the main material for the dossier and that the joint team's test results would be used only as additional proof.
Indro said the government seemed to be ignoring previous scientific findings, including the police's tests.
Abdul Haris Semendawai of Elsam criticized the formation of the new team, saying that the government should ask police to proceed with an investigation based on previous findings.
"It is just a waste of time. The police's laboratory test results should be enough to continue in determining the party responsible for the contamination," said Abdul.
Longgena Ginting, executive director of Walhi, also criticized with the government's decision to send another team to the bay, saying that as PT Newmont Minahasa Raya was the only mining company near Buyat Bay it was clearly responsible for the contamination.
"We demand that people from the company be declared suspects for environmental crimes. We need no more research," said Longgena.