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Child's death in pond puts mine reclamation back in spotlight
Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar and Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan signed a memorandum of understanding designed to improve coordination between the two ministries to make mining companies fulfill their obligations.
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Workers plant trees on a former mining area in Soroako, Luwu Timur in South Sulawesi on April 28. The mine operator, PT Vale, replanted 4,000 hectares out of 5,000 hectares of land as part of its obligations for after the mining ended. (Antara/Basri Marzuki)
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he latest death of a 14-year-old girl at a former mining site in Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan has put the issue of mine reclamation back in the spotlight, as activists blame a lack of site rehabilitation as the root cause.
The girl, identified only by her initials RNA, was found dead on April 21 in a tailings pond located at Bunga Jadi village in Muara Kaman district, Kutai Kartanegara, according to the East Kalimantan branch of the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) environmental group.
The village is located about two-and-a-half hours by car from the provincial capital of Samarinda.
Prior to RNA's death, Pradarma Rupang of the East Kalimantan Jatam said she was seen playing with four of her friends in a tailings pond located roughly 50 meters from the main road in the village. It is located within a concession apparently owned by the PT Mandala Usaha Tambang Utama mining company.
A neighborhood unit head, Kuswanto, said the mining operation had stopped three years ago, leaving behind the large pond of water.
According to Jatam, RNA became the 33rd person since 2011 recorded to have lost her life in an abandoned tailings pond used by a mining operation in the province.
Mining requires companies to dig holes, many of which are used as tailings ponds where mines pump waterborne refuse to contain the byproducts of the operation.
