Minister to bring to court alleged polluters in city

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Threatening to charge companies with crimes for polluting rivers is a relatively new attempt by the central government to prevent environmental damage.

State Minister for Environment Nabiel Makarim pledged on Monday that he would get serious about demanding legal punishment against any company in the country, which dumped untreated hazardous waste into rivers, especially in and around Jakarta and other major cities.

"We are serious, although we know that the results of our work have not significantly deterred businesses from damaging the environment," Nabiel told reporters in a press conference in his office.

Nabiel said his ministry had investigated six companies suspected of polluting Cipinang river, which flows through the eastern part of the city.

He declined to name the companies as the investigation was still underway.

Besides Cipinang river, according to the minister, his office has now been taking samples from a number of rivers across the country which they suspect, have been polluted by industrial waste.

He claimed that he could guarantee that the result of the investigation would be followed up by taking the polluters to court.

The minister added that his move had received a great deal of support from the House of Representatives, which had agreed to increase the budget for the ministry by some 400 percent.

"The legislators said that we are going in the right direction. The problem is how to get all the violators charged and tried in a court of law," he added.

Based on data from the City Environment Management Board (BPLHD), there are over 22,000 businesses in Jakarta, many of which pollute the 13 rivers in the city, as evidenced by the data that shows only 65 companies have proper liquid waste treatment facilities.

On the national level, Sudarsono, an assistant to the minister for law enforcement, said the ministry began its crack down against the polluters last year, when five cases were reported to the prosecutors' offices.

Sudarsono said the state minister's office was currently investigating 25 cases.

"We set a target to investigate at least 100 suspected cases next year, if most of those cases reach trial, it could have a significant deterrent effect on polluters," he added.

Sudarsono said that a case had been decided by the Supreme Court which sentenced a manager of a company to a year in jail and fined him Rp 100 million (US$11,628) for dumping untreated hazardous waste.

The court also ordered the company to pay compensation of Rp 9.6 billion to the state through the state minister's office, he said.

"The money will be used for promoting law enforcement and for compensating the people who suffered losses from the environmental damage," he promised.

In addition to winning the case, Sudarsono also said that six other cases were currently on appeal at the High Court while six more had recently been submitted to the prosecutor's offices.

He said 25 more cases had not included those which had been handled by the environment offices at the regional level.

According to Article 41 of Law No. 23/1997 on the environment, those damaging the environment can receive a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and a maximum fine of Rp 500 million.

However, if the damage leads to the death of a person, the maximum sentence is 15 years in jail and a fine of Rp 750 million.