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