Skepticism abounds among Buyat residents
Abdul Khalik and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
After weeks of media attention, residents of Buyat Pantai village in North Sulawesi have begun to doubt whether their health problems, caused by suspected metal contamination, would be addressed.
One villager, Hendra, said on Thursday that he wondered why the government was focusing on forming teams to investigate the alleged metal pollution, instead of medical assistance to cure people's ailments.
"I'm afraid that if the teams declare there is no Minamata disease in our home village, everybody will forget about us, while we must still deal with strange illnesses and a decreasing number of fish for the rest of our lives," he told The Jakarta Post.
The government and PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) mining firm, which has been accused of causing the pollution by disposing of its tailings in Buyat Bay, have been busy denying that the company is to blame for the ailments suffered by the villagers.
The government has set up an independent team to determine whether Buyat Bay has been contaminated. It is due to start work next week.
Jane Pangemanan, a medical expert who accompanied a number of Buyat residents to Jakarta for medical tests, said she was skeptical of the benefits of the team to Buyat residents.
"The villagers need help. They feel uncertain of whether they can live the way they used to. That's what the government should focus on," she said at a discussion in Jakarta.
Newmont has said the tailings pose no threat to the environment or to humans.
Buyat Bay looks blue from a distance, but locals say its underwater visibility has decreased by more than half since Newmont started operations in the area in 1996.
A recent laboratory test conducted by the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Indonesia (MIPA UI) revealed that mercury levels in the blood of four Buyat residents measured between 9.51 and 23.90 microns per liter (u/L), above the World Health Organization's average level of 8 u/L.
However, Keith Bentley, a former WHO regional chemical safety advisor, said there were no international standards to determine the tolerable level of mercury in human blood.
Meanwhile, Palmer Situmorang, a lawyer for Newmont, said an environmental audit was necessary to clarify the case.
In a related development, the National Police said they would let the health ministry and the state minister of the environment office determine the limit of chemicals that could be considered to contaminate the environment and human beings around Buyat Bay.
Both the health and environment ministers have repeatedly said the bay is not polluted.