Industries facing punishment for waste pollution

Industries facing punishment for waste pollution

JAKARTA (JP): Two-thirds of 187 manufacturing companies
assessed in a recent government survey are inflicting serious
pollution on the environment, an official said yesterday.

Surna T. Djajadiningrat, an assistant to the State Minister of
Environment said that 61 percent of the private companies
surveyed throughout Indonesia had been given a 'red'-category
warning for industrial pollution.

Surna said the companies had failed to maximize their efforts
to improve their waste treatment systems.

He said three percent of the company's surveyed, who are the
worst polluters, had been given a 'black'-category warning. Their
operations will be closed down if the company's refuse to improve
their waste treatment procedures, he said.

He said the Ministry of Industry and the Capital Market
Supervisory Board would take stern measures against polluting
companies which failed to improve their waste treatment processes
by the end of the year.

Surna made the remarks during a break in a seminar on
environmental developments which was sponsored by the Office of
the State Minister of Environment in cooperation with Jakarta's
Trisakti University.

The two institutions have long cooperated in relational to
environmental problems. Trisakti has not only included subjects
on the environment in its curricula but has also opened a
department of environmental technology.

Surna told the seminar that the most valuable resource in
efforts to protect the environment was the educational
institution. He urged all educational institutions to conduct
research on pollution.

The global transformation being wrought by economic
liberalization was very advantageous on one hand, he said, but
caused serious problems on the other.

Surna said development caused environmental problems,
including soil erosion, pollution, the green house effect and the
depletion of the earth's ozone layer.

Problem

Maftuchah Yusuf, a professor of environment at Trisakti
University, told the press that the most difficult problem for
the university in teaching its students about the environment was
training future teachers of the subject.

"Many teachers are not yet ready to teach the new science
according to the new syllabus and curriculum," Mrs. Yusuf said.

To meet its demand for teaching staff for its courses on the
environment the university had entered into cooperation with the
United States Information Service (USIS), which helps send
candidates for lectureships to the United States for further
education and brings American staff to lecture at Trisakti.

Jajah Koswara, director of research and social services of the
Ministry of Education and Culture, said that Indonesia had
already had 67 environment study centers, attached to various
universities.

She said that in 1992 the directorate general of higher
learning had sponsored a new project to develop 18 environment
study centers throughout the country.

The purpose of the project was to increase the managerial
abilities of the centers, to increase the skill and knowledge of
the staff and to develop the science, Mrs. Koswara said.

She said the project also aimed to support the centers in
research activities and human resource training.

According to Mrs. Koswara, most environment study centers are
active in conducting environmental impact analyses. (05)