Singapore allows return of waste

Singapore allows return of waste

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

After months of dispute, Singapore is set to allow the return of
tons of waste that Indonesia says is hazardous, with the process
expected to be completed within the coming week.

The agreement was reached during a meeting between delegations
from the two neighboring states to settle the dispute, which was
facilitated by the secretariat of the Basel Convention on
Transboundary Hazardous Waste Control in Geneva recently.

Under the agreement, Singapore will immediately lift its
current prohibition on the return of the material.

"Both parties will, within a week, initiate a process to
ensure the speedy return of the material in question to
Singapore," a joint press statement that followed the meeting
said.

Both sides agreed, however, that Singapore had not breached
the Basel Convention by exporting the material to Indonesia and
that the shipment of the material back to Singapore would not be
regarded as re-export under the convention.

State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar welcomed
the agreement. However, he said the government had to ensure that
no repetition occurred in the future.

"They (Singapore) are the ones who sent the hazardous waste
here. But, we must ensure that it will not happen again in the
future. My office has no powers to take action against companies
illegally importing such waste," he said.

Indonesia declared the material imported from Singapore to be
toxic waste and its importation into an island off Riau last year
as illegal trafficking. Singapore, however, refused to retrieve
the waste and insisted that the exports were legal under its
domestic law.

The export of the waste began in July last year when hundreds
of tons of the waste was landed on the island following a
proposal for an investment in the agricultural sector by PT APEL
to Batam Mayor Nyat Kadir.

The proposal requested a permit to bring 3,000 tons of what
was described as organic fertilizer to Galang. After obtaining
the permit, PT APEL dumped a large number of bags, the nature of
whose contents was unclear, on Galang Baru Island.

However, one month later after pressure from environmental
groups and local administrations, the contents of the bags were
tested and found to contain hazardous materials. Laboratory tests
on the materials found they contained a variety of controlled
metals and chemicals.

Rachmat went to the island in March and ordered the shipment
of the waste back to Singapore.

In order to prevent any similar incidents in the future,
Singapore and Indonesia agreed to utilize the services of an
existing forum -- the Indonesia-Singapore Joint Working Group on
the Environment (ISWG).

Both Indonesia and Singapore are parties to the Basel Convention, which
aims to control the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes
and their disposal.