Sea pollution has a tremendous impact on the economy, environment and health. Therefore, supervision and law enforcement has to be encouraged.
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·3 minutes read
ANTARA FOTO/SHERAVIM
A policeman collects oil on Banua Patra Beach after an oil spill along the coast of Balikpapan in East Kalimantan on Monday (2/4). Following a leak in the undersea Balikpapan-Penajam Paser Utara pipeline in Balikpapan Bay on Saturday (31/3), the beach and residential areas on the coast of Balikpapan city have been contaminated by the oil spill.
More than 45 years ago this daily reported that 90 percent of oil pollution in Indonesian waters was the result of transportation (Kompas, 16/2/1973).
This was based on an expert study by Smithsonian, an independent research institute in the United States. Waters in Indonesia were repeatedly polluted by oil, which came from damaged ships or tankers. In 1975, the leak of the Showa Maru tanker polluted the sea around Karimun Besar, Riau Islands (Kompas, 23/1/1975). The Ocean Blessing Ship contaminated the Straits of Malacca in 1992, and in 2004 the tanker owned by state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina was suspected of contaminating Ancol Beach in Jakarta.
The pollution of the sea in Indonesia is often due to the leakage of distribution pipes or refinery damage. In 2015, residents in Teluk Penyu, Cilacap regency, Central Java, were forced to struggle because the surrounding waters were polluted by crude oil that came from the leakage of loading and unloading pipes belonging to PT Pertamina Refinery Unit IV Cilacap (Kompas, 29/5/2015).
The biggest tragedy was in 2009 when the Montara oil well in Australia exploded, polluting 16,400 square kilometers of the Timor Sea. Indonesia suffered losses of no less than Rp 3 trillion, but until now its settlement has not been completed.
And, since March 31, residents around Balikpapan Bay, East Kalimantan, have again been affected by oil spills. Initially, no one acknowledged the cause of the spill, which even resulted in casualties. It was only four days later that PT Pertamina Refinery Unit V Balikpapan admitted that its crude oil pipeline was broken.
By Sunday (8/4), the pollution in Balikpapan Bay has not been resolved, as its impact area extends from an estimated 12,987 hectares to 20,000 hectares. The contaminated area has expanded to the Makassar Strait.
To overcome this problem the participation of various parties is needed. Not only from the affected residents and Pertamina, but also the central government apparatus. Moreover, for the citizens of Balikpapan, this incident is not the first. Last year, this daily also reported that the coast of Balikpapan was polluted with oil. Pertamina deployed a number of resources to clean it (Kompas, 3/5/2017).
Sea pollution has a tremendous impact on the economy, environment and health. Therefore, supervision and law enforcement has to be encouraged. Law No. 32/2009 on Environmental Protection and Management requires business entities to inform the public and try to mitigate the pollution they are responsible for. Residents are also allowed to file a lawsuit to get compensation.
Anyone who is negligent and responsible for polluting water, including seawater, can be sentenced up to 9 years in prison and fined Rp 1 billion to Rp 9 billion, according to Article 99 of the Environmental Protection and Management Law. However, this article is almost never used in cases of pollution at sea, so the incident continues to recur. Law enforcement must be carried out firmly so that everyone will be more vigilant and prevent the pollution of the sea.
