Villagers complain over dust from cement factory

BOGOR, West Java (JP): Residents of Kamurang and Puspanegara villages in Citeureup here on Wednesday strongly urged publicly listed cement producer PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa to provide free medical services to locals.

Residents said the air in the villages and surrounding areas was heavily polluted by dust generated from Indocement's factory, causing health and other problems among the populace.

Housewife Sugini, a senior Kamurang villager, told The Jakarta Post that many babies at the two villages were suffering from persistent coughs.

"Cement dust pours out from the factory's chimney almost every morning," the mother of two said.

Besides covering the houses' roofs, dust from the factory of the country's cement largest producer also fell on outdoor items, such as drying clothes and food stuffs.

"PT Indocement should have the heart to provide free medical treatment to the villagers at least once a month," Sugini said.

Legi, 28, of Puspanegara village, supported the claims made against the cement producer.

He said his village had on several occasions experienced what locals called "rains of dust".

Legi claimed the cement factory was responsible for spraying large amounts of dust on rainy days. He said the factory probably hoped the cement dust would be absorbed by the water.

On Wednesday, the Post correspondent observed that all houses in the two villages were white-colored due to the thick layer of cement dust.

Yadi, 30, who claimed to have worked at the Indocement factory, said the intensifying dust problem in the past few months was mainly due to serious damage of one of the firm's four chimneys.

"The dust could even reach an area as far as five kilometers away," he said, adding that the polluted air also caused respiratory problems, particularly asthma, for elderly residents.

None of the factory's executives were willing to talk to the Post correspondent, who was refused permission to enter the plant.

Indocement, a subsidiary of the giant Salim Group, reported late last month that as of last year, its foreign loans amounted to US$649 million.

It suffered Rp 378 billion in net losses last year, due to high foreign exchange losses resulting from the rupiah's sharp depreciation against the U.S. dollar.

It also said production costs rose to 32.7 percent during that period, causing the company's operating profit to drop 10.2 percent to Rp 530 billion.

The company's foreign exchange losses reached Rp 1.48 trillion last year.

Villagers said Indocement had told groups outside the area that the company had provided free medical treatment through the Puskesmas Keliling (mobile clinic) scheme.

"They're lying. We never received any kind of free medical service from Indocement. Some of us went once to the Indocement clinic, but were asked to pay for the bills, which were of course much more expensive than those at our local clinic here," Legi said. (21/bsr)