According to Emiliana, this situation changed in the late 1980s after their village became one of the areas affected by the disposal of tailings, the waste from PT Freeport Indonesia's (FI) gold mining production.
By
DIONISIUS REYNALDO TRIWIBOWO, SUCIPTO, FABIO MARIA LOPES COSTA
·5 minutes read
Kompas/Totok Wijayanto
Emiliana (left, 62) lives in a hut that she built in her former village which is currently razed to waste sand, stone and mine waste because it has become one of the tailings waste disposal routes.
Emiliana Wamena's eyes filled with tears when she talked about her homeland. The 61-year-old woman suddenly stopped talking, pointing at the barren sandy and rocky soil in front of her.
“I cry every time I remember this village. This is a place I used to find food for the women, younger generation and men [of the village]," she said in a trembling voice when we met on Monday (25/10/2021).
It is Emiliana’s old village, which is located in a swamp in the south of Mimika regency, Papua. The village, which was once a mangrove and sago forest on the side of a large river, is now a land of sand, stones and mud tailings, a waste residue from the ore mining processing. Only the dry, dead trees remain.
She told me that when her family and other Kamoro tribes lived in the village they called Pasir Hitam, they were never worried about fulfilling their daily food needs. To eat, they only need to ride a raft for a few minutes to collect sago.
If they needed a side dish, they just needed to catch fish or look for crabs and prawns around their stilt houses. If they needed money, they would just sell the catch in the city.
Residents around the Ajkwa river were also relocated to a village prepared by the company.
According to Emiliana, this situation changed in the late 1980s after their village became one of the areas affected by the disposal of tailings, the waste from PT Freeport Indonesia's (FI) gold mining production. Residents around the Ajkwa river were also relocated to a village prepared by the company.
Kompas/Totok Wijayanto
Mamas want to take a bus provided by a mining company to return to the relocation village on the outskirts of Timika City, Mimika, Papua, Tuesday (25/10/2021).
However, Mama Emiliana, as she is usually called, chose to stay. She wanted to stay close to her old village. She persists in asking for compensation money because her village was affected by the tailings.
Relying on help
At the edge of the embankment, there is compacted rocky sand. The land is used as a bus route. After relocating the Kamoro tribe to the outskirts of the city, PT FI provided buses to pick them up so that people could easily collect sago and fish from their old village.
Marpin (31), Emiliana's son-in-law who lives in Koperapoka, said the bus operated four days a week. When he ran out of food outside the bus schedule, he was troubled.
"If you run out of sago, it is too far to reach Timika [the capital of Mimika]," said Marpin, who relies on the company’s bus.
In addition, because of the now narrower and shallower river, Marpin and his family also cannot easily get fish for consumption. "Now if we want to get fish, we have to go to the sea," he said.
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Apart from Pasir Hitam, residents of other villages affected by the tailings waste have also relocated to villages and houses provided by PT FI. "We get financial assistance every Christmas, but we need health, education and the economy [alternative livelihoods]," said one of the traditional leaders of the Kamoro tribe, Siprianus Operawiri, who receives housing assistance from PT FI in the village of Nawaripi.
Kompas/Totok Wijayanto
Kamoro tribesmen fish under an embankment built by a mining company to separate the tailings waste stream.
People affected by tailings depend on buses, houses and assistance from PT FI. When the largest company in Papua ceases to operate, how will they survive?
Vice president of PT FI’s Corporate Communication, Riza Pratama said he would check what had Emiliana said. He said PT FI had also provided a place for the Kamoro tribe affected by tailings to plant and collect sago. In addition, PT FI had also developed a plantation and livestock development program so that residents could grow crops after being relocated.
"On this coast, there are some villages that are affected, but not all. We gave them motorboats so they could go out to sea. We also help residents sell the fish they catch," said Riza.
The goal was that people who had been dependent on PT FI would be able to be independent or self-help in the future.
Head of the Papua Energy and Mineral Resources Office, Fred James Boray, said the Papua provincial administration would prepare a blueprint for a community empowerment program after PT FI's contract of work ends in Papua, such as providing job training and formal education assistance. The goal was that people who had been dependent on PT FI would be able to be independent or self-help in the future.
Fred assessed that PT FI's waste management has met environmental standards. However, the Papua provincial administration hopes that FI can become a mining company that no longer produces tailings, but manages it into a commodity with economic value.
Kompas/Totok Wijayanto
The landscape of a river estuary in the Arafuru Sea that turns into land at low tide due to the thick tailings sand waste, Tuesday (25/10/2021).
Based on a report by the Supreme Audit Agency, PT FI's tailings volume reached 230,000 tons per day for 28 years (1988-2016). PT FI had compiled a tailings waste management road map before the Indonesian government took over 51.2 percent of PT FI's shares at the end of 2018. Referring to PT FI's data, in the last three years, the cost of tailings management was around Rp 1.7 trillion (US$118.59 million). (CIP/IDO/FLO)
