Villagers complain over dust from cement factory

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)