S'pore reclamation projects may cause row with RI

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Ongoing coastal reclamation projects in Singapore will enlarge Singapore's land area, which could potentially create a serious diplomatic row with Indonesia in the future, said a senior government official.

Etty R. Agoes, a marine law expert at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, said that the two neighboring countries had yet to reach agreement on territorial borders, particularly in the eastern and western border areas of Singapore.

"The territory borderline issue will be a serious obstacle for both countries," she told The Jakarta Post earlier this week.

Etty said that the government of Indonesia, via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had sent letters several times to the Singapore government to discuss and settle the matters, but they had not been properly responded to by Singapore.

Singapore is already facing problems with Malaysia over a similar issue. The wealthy island state started its reclamation project in 1999.

Singapore's ongoing and future reclamation projects are concentrated in the eastern and western coastal areas. The reclamation activities are heavily dependent upon sand extracted from the waters of adjacent Riau island.

Singapore's original land area was 580 square kilometers (sq km), according to one estimate, but after the 1999 reclamation projects, the area was enlarged to 660 sq km.

Current and future reclamation projects are expected to enlarge Singapore's area by an additional 100 sq km.

The area of Jurong Island, for example, will be expanded to 3,200 hectares, from its original 1,700 hectares.

Legislators previously called on the government of Indonesia to ban sand exports to Singapore completely until the two governments had settled the border issue.

Singapore is estimated to require some 1.8 billion cubic meters of sand over the next eight years for its land reclamation work.

Riau has been exporting sand both legally and illegally to Singapore for many years to support the reclamation projects.

The sand is sold at S$1.5 per cubic meter to international brokers, who then sell it on to Singapore construction firms for S$15 per cubic meter.

Uncontrolled sand extraction from the coastal areas of Riau, however, has caused severe environmental damage and has led to the disappearance of a number of small islets from the province.

Director of the research center for marine territory and nonliving resources at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Safri Burhanuddin said that at least five small islets had disappeared in Riau province.

"Unrestrained sand mining has accelerated the disappearance of these small islets," he told The Post.

He also warned that more small islets would disappear if sand mining activities remained uncontrolled.

"We hope the current zoning mechanism will be able to protect the marine environment," he said.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri recently issued a decree that enabled the central government to take over supervision of sand mining activities, in a move to help curb illegal sand quarrying and avoid damage to the local marine environment.

A special team has also been set up to formulate ways to protect the marine environment.