Adaro pollutes S. Kalimantan rivers, told to compensate people

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 11/26/2009 9:34 AM  |  National

PT Adaro Indonesia, a coal mining company operating in South Kalimantan, has polluted Belerang and Balangan rivers, killing fish along the rivers and causing people breeding fish in the rivers to suffer big losses, Antara reported Thursday.

The office of the state minister for the environment said that it would penalize the Australian-Indonesian joint coal mining venture by requiring the company to pay compensation to the fish breeders.

"(We demand) compensation as a sanction for the company's failure to manage their enviroment," Ilyas Asaad, a deputy to the environment minister, told Antara news agency in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan.

Early estimates put the losses at Rp 2.7 billion (about $285,000) for fish farmers along Belerang river and Rp 2.6 billion for farmers along Balangan river.

Ilyas also said that the company must improve their environmental management so that similar incidents would not happen again in the future.

Meanwhile, South Kalimantan Environmental Agency chief Rachmadi Kurdi said that the pollution in the two rivers was coming from Adaro's wastes, overflowing to the two rivers because of incessant rain since end of October.

"Because of heavy rains, water fills the company's waste disposal facility and this causes the waste to overflow and runs to Belerang river, from where the polluted water flows to Balangan river," Rachmadi said.

"Because of that, this mining company has to get a strong warning and if such an incident reoccurs in the future, it will face legal consequences," Rachmadi added.

 

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.