House Commission I joins call for ban on sand dredging

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Calls from the House of Representatives are mounting for the government to ban sand dredging in Riau waters to avoid further marine environmental damage and financial losses to the state.

If the ban is imposed, this will effectively stop exports of sand from Riau to Singapore, which currently needs a huge amount of sand and soil for reclamation projects.

House Commission I on political, security and foreign affairs on Tuesday joined the Commission VIII on science, technology and environment in their calls for the ban.

The decision of Commission I was taken during a hearing with Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Rokhmin Dahuri, State Minister of the Environment Nabiel Makarim and Navy chief Adm. Bernard Kent Sondakh -- all members of a team formed to cope with the sand issue.

Commission I legislator Djoko Susilo of the Reform faction told reporters after the hearing that sand exports to Singapore must be banned altogether until all necessary laws and regulations were in place.

"We must wait for all relevant laws to be formulated and the apparatus must be ready to enforce them. Until that time, the government must stop the digging," he said.

Outside the House compound, dozens of students called for the House to intensify pressure on the government to ban sand mining activities.

A day earlier, the House Commission VIII also called on the government to uphold the ban in a meeting with Minister Nabiel.

The government, through a presidential decree, last May lifted the sand export ban, which had been in place since February.

Since then, exports of sand have been out of control, due to the increasing illegal exports.

The dredging is known to cause environmental destruction, particularly to mangrove forests which are home to a wide variety of sea life, commonly used by local people as staple foods.

The government has also suffered billions of dollars in lost revenues due to widespread illegal exports as Singaporean brokers were able to buy sand from certain figures in Riau at $1.5 per cubic meter only to sell it to Singapore construction firms for S$15 per cubic meter.

Singapore is estimated to require some 1.8 billion cubic meters of sand over the next eight years for its land reclamation work.

The minister of industry and trade then issued a decree to limit the amount of sand that could be exported from Riau.

However, the effectiveness of such a limitation remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Adm. Bernard demanded heavy penalties for owners or those responsible for 13 foreign vessels currently held by the Navy.

The 13 foreign vessels were caught by naval warships while allegedly dredging up sand illegally without any of the necessary documents in Riau waters.

"They must be punished heavily to deter future smuggling activities," he said.

Bernard denied reports and speculation that the Navy itself was involved in the smuggling.

According to Nabiel, the 13 vessels had caused losses to the state of at least Rp 1.1 billion (US$123,595) per day.

Meanwhile, the Singapore government said over the weekend that it was against illegal exports of the sand and other commodities.

"While sand imports to Singapore are handled by (private) contractors on a purely commercial basis, Singapore's position is that all our sand suppliers should comply with the laws of whichever country they buy sand from," it said in a statement available to The Jakarta Post.

Nabiel went on to say that his ministry would monitor closely the sand quarrying practices to ensure that the activities would not harm the environment.

"Our ministry actually wants the sand mining be stopped. But now that it has been allowed, we then must watch closely to safeguard our environment from damage," he said.