JP/18/PASIR

JP/18/PASIR

People turn unfriendly as sand quarrying rampant

Sand quarrying endangers riverine villagers

Indra Harsaputra
The Jakarta Post/Surabaya

Bambang, a resident of Mlirip hamlet in the East Java town of
Mojokerto, can only sit still watching how sand quarrying
machines are operated in Brantas River.

"It's really appalling because despite frequent warnings from
locals, sand quarrying machines continue to operate," Bambang
told The Jakarta Post several weeks ago.

He said locals living close to the sand quarrying sites have
warned those undertaking sand quarrying in Brantas River, but
these warnings have fallen on deaf ears.

Sand quarrying simply proceeds with sand pumps and conveyors.
Annoyed that their warnings have gone unheeded, locals have
frequently pelted stones at the passing sand quarrying groups and
even worse, a group of people in Jombang burned a boat and the
sand pumps used for sand quarrying a few weeks ago.

Why do the people resort to stone pelting and burning boats
then?

Bambang said people living near the sand quarrying sites feel
economically and ecologically disadvantaged by the activity.

Usually sand quarrying is conducted by people from outside
Mojokerto. They exploit the sand in Brantas River for their own
benefit. In a day, dozens of trucks pick up the quarried sand and
transport it to be sold to major cities. Locals can eventually
only bear the brunt of this quarrying activity.

"We now realize that excessive sand quarrying will damage the
river environment," Bambang said.

The flood of mud that hit Mojokerto several weeks ago, he
said, was a good lesson for the locals and made them realize the
significance of maintaining the ecosystem of Brantas River. This
flood, killing dozens of locals and damaging a number of houses
and buildings, was caused both by bare mountain areas and also
sand quarrying.

Director of Sahabat Lingkungan, a non-governmental
organization dealing with environment in Mojokerto, Satrijo
Wiweko, said that the use of machines in sand quarrying would
cause the Brantas River bed to sink lower.

In 2000, he said, the depth of the river ran, on the average,
about six meters from the surface but today the depth has become
nine meters. As a result, the process in which sand comes down
from the side of the riverbanks will be affected. In the wet
season, when the river water increases in volume, the sand from
one side of the riverbanks will fall away, increasing the
pressure of the river water and, consequently, breaking the river
dikes.

This will make the river overflow and flood residential areas,
which will threaten the lives of tens of thousands of families.
Once the dike leaks or collapses, hundreds of riverine villages
in Jombang and Mojokerto regencies will be submerged.

Aside from the threat it poses to Mojokerto and Jombang
residents, sand quarrying activities are also very likely to
cause the collapse of Surabaya-Mojokerto bridge because the area
under this bridge is the usual site for these activities.

Understandably, when the sand quarrying continues, the pillars
of the bridge will become unbalanced as the river bed sinks
further.

He added that his organization has alerted the local
administration about this danger. In 1984, he added, a bridge
connecting Padangan-Mojokerto collapsed exactly because, among
other things, of the same reason.

"This is a serious problem that concerns the safety of people
crossing the bridge," he said.

More and more people have been conducting mechanical sand
quarrying in Brantas River, spanning from the border area between
Nganjuk-Kediri, to Jombang and Mojokerto, since 1998.

Previously, people only dived into the river to collect the
sand. As the local administration fails to exercise proper and
strict control, mechanical sand quarrying has become rampant.

Indeed, because of rampant sand quarrying activities, East
Java governor issued in 2003, decree No. 29, on the management of
sand quarrying activities along the rivers of Brantas, Surabaya,
Porong and Marmoyo. This gubernatorial decision lays down the
rule of the game for sand quarrying activities.

It prohibits, for example, the use of machines and stipulates
that only cooperatives with members comprising locals can
undertake these activities. Besides, a permit from the head of
the local energy and mineral resources agency must be obtained
before these activities start. If any of these stipulations are
violated, the permit will be revoked.

Talking about sand quarrying permits, chief of general mining
and energy sub-service of East Java energy and mineral resources
agency, Tutut Tri Herawati, said that there were only 14
companies actively undertaking sand quarrying in East Java. All
these companies possess permits to undertake sand quarrying over
a total area of 341.01 hectares.

Six of these companies operate over a total area of 137.51
hectares in Blitar and another one, also in Blitar, carries out
its sand quarrying over a 3-hectare area only. One other company
operates in Brantas River over an area measuring some 10 hectares
and four companies in Kediri, over a total area measuring 190.5
hectares.

The number of people undertaking unlicensed sand quarrying is
great, she said, adding that there could be thousands of them.
However, they operate only on areas measuring between 0.5 hectare
and 1 hectare only.

Secretary General of the Association of Mining Companies
(Aspertam), East Java chapter, Hudin Al Sonny, said that not a
single company undertaking sand quarrying in Brantas River had
joined Aspertam, which now brings together 148 licensed mining
companies.

"We monitor the permits of our members. If their permits
expire, we will remind them to re-register," he said. The size of
a mining area determines the length of validity of a mining
permit. A permit issued for mining activities over a vast area
will usually be valid for five years.

To avoid stone pelting from locals and raids conducted by the
local administration, mechanical sand quarrying is usually
conducted between 1:00 a.m. and 5.00 a.m.. At daylight, thousands
of trucks are ready to transport the sand to places outside the
town.