Oil-rich Babelan residents poor
Oil-rich Babelan residents poor
Wahyuana, Bekasi
Abdul Somad expects no harvest this year as most of the rice he
sowed on his 1,500 square meter patch have failed to produce
grains.
"The heat produced by (state oil company) Pertamina's oil well
has caused my crop to fail," said the 40-year-old farmer from
Tambun village in Babelan district, Bekasi, whose field is
located next to Pertamina's Tambun-A well.
Along with other farmers owning a total of 75 hectares of rice
fields in the vicinity of the wells, Somad has often complained
about a sharp decline in production from the usual three tons of
rice per hectare to only about 800 kilograms per hectare today.
Rasam and Engkon, whose rice fields are located near the
Tambun-F well, added that crude oil seepage had also polluted the
water used for irrigation, and killed fish and plants.
Hundreds of other farmers of Buni Bhakti, Buni Baru, Muara
Bhakti, Pondok Tengah and Pantai Hurip villages have been
suffering the same problems as Somad and his fellow farmers, many
of whom have lost their crops since Pertamina started operations
in the area last year.
Environmentalists have reported finding unacceptable levels of
heavy metals, such as chromium, zinc, cobalt and lead, in the
rivers flowing through the area.
According to Bahrul Alam, chairman of the Buni Bhakti
Residents Forum, they had asked Pertamina to compensate them for
their losses. "But there has been no reply."
On April 16, a leak of about 30,000 barrels of crude oil
affected Buni Baru village, forcing 400 residents to abandon
their homes for one month. To date, there is still a strong smell
of gas in the area, which locals believe presents a hazard to
their safety.
The residents only received food worth Rp 15,000 (US$1.60) per
day in the refugee shelters as compensation from Pertamina.
The Babelan oil field, located 25 kilometers north of Bekasi
and 40 kilometers northeast of Jakarta, has estimated reserves of
424 million barrels of oil and 3.34 trillion cubic feet of gas.
The company has 16 oil wells there.
The presence of the oil field is in contrast to the poverty-
stricken villages that surround it, with villagers being entirely
dependent on their rice harvests for survival.
"Half of the families here are categorized as poor households,
and many of our young people are unemployed. They were promised
work at the oil field, but we haven't heard anything about it
since then," said Buni Bhakti village chief Hardi Suhardi.
Responding to the residents' complaints, Pertamina general
manager for its West Java operations, Bambang Busono, said the
company would pay out a total of Rp 2 billion in compensation to
Buni Baru people this week.
"We will also invite experts from the Bogor Agriculture
Institute to analyze whether the flames from the wells are
affecting the villagers' crops. We will also check whether it is
waste from the oil field or the chemicals used in agriculture
that have caused the river pollution," he told the Post.