Indonesia attacks Dutch for stalling on toxic waste
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia yesterday criticized the Netherlands for stalling on the issue of taking back dozens of unwanted containers of toxic waste now piling up at Indonesian ports.
The Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) said the Netherlands had not taken the matter seriously and a Dutch team sent recently in response to Indonesia's request simply inspected the documents and had no authority to discuss plans for their re- export.
"We're disappointed because the Netherlands only sent a team to conduct a legal investigation and not to discuss procedures on how to re-export the waste," Bapedal's deputy for pollution control section Nabiel Makarim told reporters.
"We want the Netherlands to take back the waste immediately," Nabiel said after a meeting with the team yesterday.
"It's your waste and you should take it back," Nabiel repeated to the team.
Nabiel said from his discussions, it became apparent that if Indonesia had to wait for the Dutch to complete the entire legal proceedings against the exporters, it could be some five years before the containers would be re-exported.
Indonesia maintains that the 70 containers of toxic and hazardous waste now piled up at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port originated in the Dutch port of Rotterdam.
The Dutch team had earlier pointed out that many did not originate in the Netherlands and had simply used Rotterdam as a transit point. They also said that several of the containers that did originate in the Netherlands had been mixed with waste from other countries before they reached Indonesia.
"We don't care whether Rotterdam is merely a transit place for the waste or the point of origin," Nabiel said.
From Rotterdam
The four-person team, which has been conducting field investigations here over the past 12 days, said that it identified 58 containers containing hazardous and toxic waste which came from Rotterdam.
This represented major progress given that when the team arrived here it stressed that its main concern was the four containers that truly belonged to Dutch firms.
Nabiel, however, insisted that the team should complete its investigation of all 70 containers that originated from Rotterdam.
He regretted that the team will leave Indonesia tomorrow, leaving the problem unresolved.
Chris Dijkens, a member of the Dutch team who is a staff member of the Netherlands' ministry of environment, said his mission was to collect data of offenses committed by Dutch firms in sending the waste to Indonesia and to report these findings to the environment ministry.
With sufficient data, the ministry then would be able to sue the waste exporters and force them to import the containers, Dijkens said.
Nabiel, however, said that this would be a long and drawn out process and was unacceptable to Indonesia. "Imagine, how long the containers would remain at our ports if we had to wait for the court verdicts before sending them back."
The Netherlands is a signatory to the Basel Convention which bans transboundary shipments of waste, and therefore Indonesia urged it to solve the problem as quickly as possible, he said.
The Dutch team complained that their mission here had been frustrated by the inability of the Indonesian authorities to arrange for a meeting with the waste importers.
A source at the Attorney General's office said many of the importers, due to the illegal nature of the containers, had falsified company names and addresses to avoid detection. (prs)