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Decade later, justice elusive for Timor farmers impoverished by Montara oil spill
“Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, each farmer could harvest up to 50 kilograms of seaweed daily. In comparison, recently every farmer had only been able to harvest one kilogram a day,” said seaweed farmer Yusak Pellu.
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A dead fish floats in heavily polluted waters in the Timor Sea. A 2009 oil spill had devastating impacts on thousands of fishermen and seaweed farmers in East Nusa Tenggara. (Tempo/-)
T
he general public has possibly forgotten one of Australia’s worst oil disasters, the Montara spill in the Timor Sea a decade ago, but the effect on seaweed farmers on Timor Island remains to such an extent that they are even unable to send their children to school.
A number of seaweed farmers from Tablolong village in Kupang regency, East Nusa Tenggara, for instance, have experienced a 98 percent drop of seaweed production because of the oil spill until now.
“Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, each farmer could harvest up to 50 kilograms of seaweed daily. In comparison, recently every farmer had only been able to harvest one kilogram a day,” said seaweed farmer Yusak Pellu.
The farmers still wait for justice after their economy and welfare were affected by an oil spill from a leaking rig off the northern coast of Western Australia in 2009.
“The oil spill was the result of poor industrial practice committed by the oil company and also the lack of supervision by the Australian government. The leaking did not stop for 70 days,” Care for West Timor Foundation (YPTB) chairman Ferdi Tanoni told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
The oil spill occurred on Aug. 21, 2009 following an explosion at the Montara oil rig. Subsequently, the rig began spewing out oil and for more than 70 days, gas and oil from the rig gushed into the Timor Sea, approximately 690 kilometers west of Darwin and 250 kilometers southeast of Rote Island, East Nusa Tenggara.
According to Ferdi’s accounts, the spilled oil covered about 300,000 square meters of the ocean and contaminated both Australian and Indonesian waters. He believes that the oil spill was the major reason for the steep decline in seaweed output and the industry’s slow death.
