Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post 11 Dec 09;
Manganese mining in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), carried out by 232 companies and thousands of independent miners, has reportedly damaged thousands of hectares of forests, plantations and farmland, a forum has heard.
The damage could have a detrimental impact on people's livelihoods, since most of the miners failed to carry out reclamation, Reverend Sri Ledoh, the service coordinator of the West Fatuleu parish of the Gereja Masehi Injili church in Timor, said at a forum titled "Mining Problematics" held in Kupang recently.
According to Ledoh, many residents in Fatuleu district, , who were previously farmers farms and raised livestock, had now taken to mining for manganese.
"They probably earn more from manganese, so they move away from farming. I'm afraid of what will happen should productive *farmland* be exploited *for mining*. These new miners are also unaware of safety considerations when mining," Ledoh said.
Ledoh said a food crisis may be imminent, citing the residents' preference to mining for manganese that they could sell for Rp 1,000 (about 10 US cents) per kilogram rather than preparing their farms and rice fields for the next planting season.
"Four residents of Fatuleu district were buried alive in a tunnel while mining for manganese a few weeks ago. If mining is not curbed during the rainy season, many more residents could become victims," he added.
Forum participant Noverius H. Nggili said based on a survey and studies conducted at a number of mining sites, independent miners were vulnerable to pneumoconiosis, or miner's asthma and other respiratory diseases through inhaling manganese dust for extended periods. This can lead to impotence.
"Miner's asthma is very dangerous because it is incurable. A sufferer could die in a short time. The surroundings will also be damaged because most of the miners fail to reclaim the site after exploiting it," Noverius warned.
The head of the NTT energy and mining resources office, Bria Yohanes, said his office was faced an uphill struggle in curbing mining activities because the government was still in the middle of amending two mining laws covering mining regulation, and specifically, mining of coal and minerals.
