Residents protest textile factory over pollution

BOGOR (JP): Dozens of Nanggewer villagers living near the Kalibaru River in the Cibinong subdistrict here continued on Tuesday to demand that a nearby textile factory immediately stop dumping its wastewater into the river.

The villagers said the waste from PT Surya Abadi Tekstil had badly polluted the river and regularly killed tons of fish being farmed in ponds on the side of the river.

The polluted water, particularly noxious during the rainy season, also left a foul odor on clothes washed in the river, said Ansor, a village resident.

According to Ansor, who claimed to represent dozens of villagers from two neighborhoods, the people only wanted to stop the dumping of poisonous wastes into the river.

"The latest incident occurred last month, when many of our fish were killed. The total loss reached some Rp 3 million," he said.

This incident sparked the anger of the residents, who marched about one kilometer to demand accountability from the textile factory.

"The executives of the company finally gave the villagers compensation worth only Rp 1.4 million, arguing that the death of the fish might not have been because of the factory's waste," Ansor said.

Besides being used for farming fish, the river also serves as a place for the local villagers to wash their clothes.

"When the river's polluted, we have to filter the water with a cloth. But we still have to use water from the well if we want to keep the bad odor out of the clothes," Ansor said.

None of the executives at Surya Abadi Tekstil could be reached for comment, but the head of the factory's security, Dasuki, told The Jakarta Post that his company had done no harm to either the villagers or the river.

"This factory has its own wastewater treatment facility and has been inspected every month by officials from the Water Environment Laboratorium of the West Java provincial Water Development and Research Center," Dasuki said.

"It means that the wastewaster (dumped from the factory) has already met the standard prerequisites as required by existing regulations," he added.

Dasuki's statement was supported by Noor Subekti, head of the Bogor administration's pollution prevention office.

"To my knowledge," he said, "the factory has its own wastewater treatment facility."

However, Noor said that the factory might have circumvented the inspections by operating the wastewater treatment system for the inspection teams, and then switching the system off after the officials had left the site.

"This often happens because operating such a wastewater treatment facility costs a lot of money," the official said, adding that his office would examine the villagers' complaint soon.

Dasuki explained that the factory's wastewater was dumped into the Kalibaru River at 10 a.m. every day.

However, the villagers claimed that the textile factory dumped its harmful waste into the river at about 3 a.m., when the villagers were already in their homes.

"That's why the river is always crystal clear in the daylight," Ansor said. (24/bsr)