TheJakartaPost
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More than grains of sand
Sand dredging is notoriously harmful. A number of islets in Thousand Islands regency off Jakarta and in Riau Islands in Sumatra have reportedly been washed away due to the practice.
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Water invasion: The inundated Wal Adhuna Mosque is seen from land at Muara Baru, Jakarta, on Aug. 13, 2019. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
W
e question the government’s recent decision to reinstate sea sand exports after a two-decade ban, which ironically comes when the country is facing environmental degradation in its coastal ecosystem, especially along the northern coast of Java.
From Jakarta to Demak in Central Java, sea levels have continued to rise and inundate villages and wipe out people’s livelihoods on the shore. Jakarta is perhaps luckier than other coastal areas as it has a massive wall to withstand the seawater invasion, otherwise many parts of the city’s northern waterfront would be under water.
The lifting of the ban has also occurred when President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is going heavy on protecting mineral resources by systematically prohibiting exports of most of the country’s critical metals.
President Jokowi signed the government regulation on sea sand exports on May 15. It allows mining permit holders to mine and export sea sand, provided that domestic needs have been met. The approved uses for the sand include land reclamation and private and state infrastructure development.
In his defense of the policy, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono said the exports would help ease sedimentation on the seabed. He added that a study would be required to assess whether an area is fit for mining.
Before then-president Megawati Soekarnoputri banned sea sand exports in 2003, Indonesia nearly lost two frontier islands, Nipah and Sebatik, due to massive sea sand exports to Singapore. Had this happened, not only would the country’s borders have changed but the Republic’s territorial integrity would have been threatened.
It is hard to buy the arguments the government is using to justify the lifting of the export ban. The government may have ignored the lesson from the impact of climate change all over the world. Global warming resulting from climate change has now put many small island states at risk of extinction.
