Indonesia: Stop reclamation of two isles in Thousand islands, Environment office

thejakartapost.com 28 Oct 15;

Thousand Islands regency’s Environment Office has ordered the developers of reclamation projects in Pulau Tengah and Pulau Kali Age to stop their activities because the projects were not equipped with complete documents.

Office head Tiur Maeda Hutapea has said that for the reclamation in Pulau Tengah the developers only held an ecological assessment document for the isle, not a complete environmental impact analysis (Amdal) document, as was needed.

“It is clearly a violation against existing regulations,” Tiur said as reported by beritajakarta.com on Wednesday.

According to Tiur, the permits for the reclamation of Pulau Tengah should be issued by the provincial administration. “The permits for reclamation projects on five to 15 hectares of land should be issued by the provincial administration. I urge the administration to stop it,” Tiur added.

According to Tiur, there is a clear negative impact coming from the reclamation; as an example, the reclamation process has killed seaweeds in Pulau Pari and Pulau Lancang.

She stressed that the law should be upheld, even though a lot of money could be made from the development of the luxury houses in the reclaimed areas; the city stands to collect a large amount of tax and the developers also promised to develop a Sea Water Reserve Osmosis (SWRO) as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) component to the project.

Meanwhile, speaking about the reclamation process in Pulau Kali Age, Tiur said it also seriously affected the environment in surrounding areas. “We have demanded that the developer stop its activities. I also call on it to obtain permits,” he said.

Tiur said that his office had monitored the illegal reclamation activities in the regency in an attempt to stop further environmental damage. (bbn)