Surabaya court rejects Walhi suit

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya

The Surabaya District Court rejected on Monday a lawsuit filed by the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) that the court take stern measures against three companies for polluting the Surabaya River.

Presiding judge Ida Setiawati Tjandra turned down the suit on the grounds that the environmental group had failed to prove its credibility and thus justify the legality of its suit.

She pointed out further that Walhi did not provide any evidence at court to show it had executed concrete programs to prevent pollution of the river; neither had it carried out surveys or other research indicating empirically that the three companies had polluted the river.

Walhi lawyer Susilaningtyas lashed out at the verdict after the hearing, saying it was baseless. She said Walhi was a credible institution and had won public recognition as a noted environmental group.

She also said Walhi had conducted environmental surveys on the Surabaya River, such as its River Cruise program that monitored the river and raised public awareness on its pollution levels.

She said the group had presented strong evidence to support its lawsuit, showing that the Surabaya River had been heavily polluted by the three companies.

Walhi's evidence included data indicating that the three companies had violated the East Java Gubernatorial Decree 1997 on pollution threshold in the Surabaya River. The decree limits waste released into the river to a maximum biological oxygen demand (BOD) of less than 30 milligrams per liter and a maximum chemical oxygen demand (COD) of less than 80 mg/l.

Walhi found that one of the three companies had released waste with a BOD level of between 416 to 1,435 mg/l, in gross excess of the decreed limit. It had also released waste with a COD level of between 954 and 3,302 mg/l.

Susilaningtyas said Walhi would appeal the verdict.