Earlier this year, an activist from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) predicted that environmental damage in Indonesia in 2011 will increase by 50 percent to 70 percent from last year`s rate.
The activist Mukri Friatna said six factors contributed to the damage, namely that the government, both central and regional, continued issuing operational licenses to big mining and paper companies, an indication that the government had not yet prioritized an eco-friendly development.
Another factor was the threshold of the disposal of the companies` wastes which was considered to be relatively loose and no longer relevant to the actual conditions. Mukri referred to the environmental impact analysis (Amdal) required from the companies. The analysis, he said, was not yet putting natural disaster and human rights as valued points.
The third factor was the absence of governmental regulations on guidelines on strategic environmental research programs (KLHS). The fourth was the fact that many provinces and districts had not yet completed their Regional Regulation on Spatial Planning.
Mukri also said some companies and hospitals had not yet made Amdal and proper waste management reports. He also considered the government had been too slow in handling cases related to environmental damage.
He said the ongoing environmental degradation might cause various ecological disasters which could eventually affect the people. One of the areas prone to environmental damage accroding to Walhi is South Sumatra.
Local Walhi’s Executive Director Anwar Sadat said the environmental damage of river pollution, deforestation, and ecological destruction in South Sumatra should be seriously dealt with immediately.
In the company of his staff, Hadi Jatmiko, Anwar Sadat said that based on the facts and findings during an investigation in 2010, illegal logging activities and ecological destruction in the province were still rampant.
"We are afraid that if the local government fails to do something about the environmental destruction in the province immediately, it will get even worse in 2011," Anwar Sadat said.
Meanwhile, in North Sumatra, a Legal Aid Institute (LBH) activist said the provincial and Medan city municipal governments should be responsible for last Thursday`s flash flood.
The flood that inundated more than a thousand houses was partly caused by the two governments` failure to implement environmentally-oriented development programs, Irfan Fadila Mawi said.
"Therefore, as a result of their failure, the North Sumatra provincial government and Medan municipal administration must be responsible for the flash flood," he said here Saturday.
According to Irfan, head of the LBH`s Medan branch`s natural resources division, the provincial and city governments should be able to meet the people`s needs through sustainable development strategies.
Despite the fact that the environmentally-oriented development issue had become national and international concerns, the provincial and Medan city governments might have ignored that in their development program strategies, he said.
The ignorance could be seen from the decline in the quality and quantity of natural resources and environment in many parts of North Sumatra province, he said. The province`s water catchment areas, for instance, had declined after being used as building construction sites, he said. Government’s Commitment Questioned
Many times President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stated about his government’s commitment to prioritize environmental factor in building the country. In fact, the president at the National Meeting 2011 last January 10 stated that an eco-friendly development is going to be one of his government`s focus in 2011.
"Apart from implementing a development which can support better economic growth, more employment rate and decrease our poverty rate, I also urged all government officials to make sure that our development is based on an eco-friendly system," the president said.
The president said national development must be conducted without damaging the environment. He urged all governors to act firmly against mining or plantation companies which operation was said to have damaged the environment.
However, the government’s promise was questioned by environmentalists. An urban and environmental development expert of Tarumanegara University, Dr. Darrundono said many policies pursued by the government had not yet been environmentally friendly and thus caused environmental damage. The environmental damage was worsened by climate change, he said.
The construction of flats or apartments and shopping centers in Jakarta had drastically reduced areas which were supposed to absorb water and serve environmental buffers, he said.
He took an example of villas built in the Puncak region which had taken 30 percent of farming land adding that of the 226 lakes in the Jabodetabek (Jakarta-Bogor-Depok-Tangerang-Bekasi) region, only 33 were still functioning maximally economically and ecologically.
As a result, Jakarta was often hit by floods and sea water intrusions. It was now also hard to find ground water in the capital and some part of Jakarta were now actually sinking, Dr. Darundono said. Citing an example, he mentioned the recent collapse of Jalan Martadinata due to the intrusion of sea water into soil on which the street leading to Tanjung Priok port was built.
He predicted that similar incidents would happen in other coastal cities in Indonesia in time to come. Due to climate change, the sea level in Jakarta Bay would rise and push the coastline 15 meters inland, he said.
Meanwhile, Green Institute chairman Chalid Muhammad said other cities in Indonesia might collapse ecologically and also economically due to the massive exploitation of natural resources and unorganized urban development. Climate change could also cause a sinking of the ground surface and a sea level rise at the same time, he said.
"The sea level in the Jakarta Bay has already undergone a significant rise and sea water is already permeating the sub-soil in certain parts of the capital. Semarang, capital of Central Java, is already seeing high tides on its coasts almost every day," he said.
Land reclamation would not be a solution and cause other problems, he said, adding that fundamental changes were needed in the current environment management paradigm to save the environment.
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