House urges govt to name polluters
House urges govt to name polluters
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The House of Representatives called on the government to announce
immediately the final report on an audit (PROPER) of companies
which are allegedly polluting the environment to help uphold the
law on the environment and avoid raising any suspicions of
collusion among the public.
Irwan Prayitno, chairman of Commission VIII on oil, gas,
mining and the environment, said any delay in the announcement of
the audit's results would raise questions among the public.
"If PROPER's results are final, the government should announce
it to the public. It will be very good for public to know which
companies comply with the law on the environment and those
polluting the environment," said Irwan when asked on Monday to
comment on the government's delay in announcing the result.
State Minister for the Environment Nabiel Makarim disclosed to
the commission last week that the environmental audit was
finished but he declined to identify the polluting companies.
PROPER is conducted annually to encourage companies,
especially the ones using pollutants in their raw materials, to
help preserve the environment. The government has also conducted
a clean river program (Prokasih) to discourage companies from
dumping toxic waste into the rivers.
Non-governmental organizations and environmentalists have
urged the public not to buy products produced by polluting
companies.
Nabiel also expressed disappointment over the findings, saying
many companies had poor management of waste water for numerous
reasons.
Based on the PROPER's result, the government will rank the
companies, depending on their performance in managing their
waste. Companies complying with the law in managing their waste
will be awarded gold and green environment labels while companies
polluting the environment will be given red and black labels.
Nabiel said there had been a growing trend since the 1998
economic crisis for companies to pay less attention to protecting
the environment.
Nabiel said that many factories in Java no longer complied
with the law on the environment in managing their waste due to
increased overall costs.
Julius Bobo, member of Commission VIII, said the government
should start imposing sanctions on polluting companies to
encourage other companies to comply with the law.
"There is no reason for the government to delay the
announcement of the list of polluting companies for another two
months as the result is final," he said.
The government faces a dilemma in identifying the polluting
companies because the audit was conducted randomly and the
government had run short of equipment to examine the serious
impacts of polluting companies' waste water on the environment.
Many companies declared as polluters, are expected to object
to the environmental audit, since not all companies were examined
thoroughly.
The government examined only 85 of thousands of companies
across the country
Hermien Roosita, an assistant to the environment minister on
environmental conservation, conceded that her office had carried
out a limited examination of certain companies.
"We just want PROPER's results to be perfect," she said.