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Indonesia in dire need of large-scale mercury storage
An estimated 2,000 tons of mercury valued at some US$76 million were exported to Indonesia between 1998 and 2014
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Mercury is mixed with clean water to process gold at a small-scale gold mine. JP/ Magnus Hendratmo (JP/Magnus Hendratmo)
T
he presence of mercury – a poison that attacks the brain, bowels, kidneys and other organs – in Indonesia’s air, land and waters has risen to dangerous levels, with environmentalists and experts urging the government to take action by capturing and storing the hazardous element.
According to a 2017 report released by the Bali Fokus Foundation, which advocates for a toxic-free environment, an estimated 2,000 tons of mercury valued at some US$76 million were exported to Indonesia between 1998 and 2014. Most were used by the country’s manufacturing and healthcare industries, as well as small-scale gold miners.
Environment and Forestry Ministry records show that about 1 million small-scale gold miners operate around the country. They use mercury to extract gold from gold ore in a process that releases high levels of mercury waste.
“About 300 tons of mercury waste is released annually,” the ministry’s director of hazardous substances, Yun Insiani, said during a workshop on the supply, availability and reduction of mercury at the ministry’s headquarters in South Jakarta on Monday.
Mercury is an indestructible hazardous substance and has the ability to accumulate within an organism's lifecycle. President Joko “Jokowi’ Widodo signed last April Presidential Regulation No. 21/2019 on national action plans (RAN) for mercury reduction and elimination.
The regulation was issued two years after Indonesia ratified the Minamata Convention on Mercury – an international treaty designed to protect human health and the environment from human-linked emissions and releases of elemental (metallic) mercury and mercury compounds – through the enactment of Law No. 11/2017 on the convention's ratification.
The Convention was named after the Japanese city Minamata, which suffered a devastating incident of mercury poisoning in 1956. More than 2,000 people were killed by toxic methylmercury.
