House Commission I joins call for ban on sand dredging

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.