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Jokowi urged to discuss Timor Sea pollution with Australian prime minister
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Heavily polluted -- Dead fish in the heavily polluted Timor Sea. The 2009 Montara oil spill has had devastating impacts on thousands of fishermen and seaweed farmers in East Nusa Tenggara. (AP/Charlie Riedel)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is expected to raise a discussion on pollution in the Timor Sea during his meeting with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Canberra, in November, this year.
“The agenda item is very important to support the [current] class-action lawsuit filed by more than 13,000 East Nusa Tenggara seaweed farmers at the Australian Federal Court,” the province’s National Research Council chairman Gregorius Neonbasu told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Gregorius, who is also a lecturer at Widya Mandira in Kupang, said the meeting was high time to discuss the topic amid the lawsuit against PTTEP Australasia.
(Read also: Montara oil spill brought suffering to E. Nusa Tenggara: Farmer)
He said the pollution, which was caused by an oil spill at the Montara oil rig on Aug. 21, 2009, had affected 90 percent of Indonesian waters in Timor Sea and destroyed seaweed cultivation in the area.
Similarly, Muchtasor of the Surabaya-based 10 November Institute of Technology also suggested that Jokowi discuss the topic with Turnbull, saying that the pollution was a crime against farmers.
“Besides the seaweed farmers, local fishermen also suffered significant income decreases,” Muchtasor, who has conducted research on the social and economic impact of pollution in the Timor Sea, said. (jun)
