Govt told to focus on finding source of contamination

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.