Protest against textile factory pollution

Protest against textile factory pollution

PEKALONGAN, Central Java: Residents of the Jeruksari village in Pekalongan regency threatened to force the closure of the textile company PT Berhasiltex for polluting the environment.

Anwar Qosim, spokesman for the villagers, said the people were very disappointed with the company's failure to respond to their demands in regard to the prolonged contamination of ground water in the village.

"We will forcibly close the factory if they continue to contaminate our ground water by not managing their own waste water," he said after a demonstration near the factory.

He said the factory's waste is dumped into the local area and has contaminated all the wells in the village and several people have suffered skin diseases from the water, as a result.

He warned that he could not be held responsible if they, along with residents of other villages, joined together to forcefully close the factory.

Susiyanto, chief of the local office of the Waste Water Management Agency (Bapedalda), called on the provincial administration to take strict action against the factory for the environmental pollution.

He reiterated that a number of locals had contracted skin diseases from the water. --Antara