The safety of residents around the Pertamina Plumpang Depot, North Jakarta, is a priority so that they have certainty of housing and reorganizing their lives.
Aerial photo of residential residents separated by the guardrail of the Pertamina Plumpang Depot in Rawabadak Selatan Village, Koja District, North Jakarta, Saturday (4/3/2023).
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The government is set to relocate the Integrated Fuel Storage Terminal operated by state-owned energy company Pertamina in Plumpang, North Jakarta, to a plot of land owned by sea transportation operator PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo). The relocation will be coordinated among the State-Owned Enterprises (SEOs) Ministry, Pertamina and Pelindo, with site construction ready to begin by the end of 2024.
"We had a meeting and we agreed to move the storage depot to Pelindo's land. We have coordinated with Pelindo. The land will be ready for construction by the end of 2024," SOEs Minister Erick Thohir said in a video statement made available to the media on Monday (6/3/2023).
Accompanied by Deputy SOEs Minister Pahala Mansury and Pertamina president director Nicke Widyawati, he said the depot’s construction would take up to two and a half years.
While it will be three and a half years for the new site to operate, a buffer zone, according to Erick, would be laid out around the Plumpang depot, spanning 50 meters outward from the site-encroaching fence. A buffer zone has also been planned for other fuel storage sites, such as those in Balongan, West Java, and Semarang, Central Java.
”Therefore, we need to ensure that local governments and the people give their support because this is part of community protection we will be pursuing because we believe it is crucial. Security is our priority," he said.
Citing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo's direction about the need to ensure protection and provide solutions for the people in the aftermath of the deadly Plumpang fire, he said Pertamina saw to it that hospital treatment was provided to the victims and rented homes for displaced tenants. "We will be tending to their lives for the next few months pending further measures for their assurance," said Erick.
The provincial government leaves it to the central government's policies.
The Plumpang fuel storage terminal caught fire on Friday (3/3) night, killing 19 people, with 40 others being admitted to hospital.
As many as 423 affected residents have been forced to take shelter at two places, some 300 at Rasela integrated child-friendly public space (RPTRA) and the rest at the North Jakarta Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) office.
"The provincial government leaves it to the central government's policies," acting Jakarta governor Heru Budi Hartono said when asked about the planned relocation of the Plumpang depot.
Johnny Simanjuntak, Commission E member of Jakarta legislative council (DPRD), said the government should take into account aspects of efficiency and effectiveness in the relocation plan, over which the government had been previously split between moving the depot or the residents of Tanah Merah. He said depot relocation, as the government had now opted for, would certainly cost a hefty sum with the fuel distribution chain having to be maintained, while to move the residents would have required a study on the socio-economic impacts.
FAKHRI FADLURROHMAN
Two K-9 dogs helped police search for missing victims in one of the ruins on Jalan Tanah Merah Bawah, Rawa Badak Selatan, Koja, North Jakarta, Sunday (5/3/2023).
Odontology and DNA
Meanwhile, entering the third day since the fire, the National Police's Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team continues to identify the dead. Of the 15 body bags received, three bodies have been identified through fingerprint and odontology examinations while 12 could only be identified through DNA examination and odontology.
As informed by National Police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ahmad Ramadhan during a press conference on Monday, residents missing family members are advised to report to the DVI postmortem desk at Bhayangkara Hospital in Kramatjati, East Jakarta, or contact (0812) 1388-515 and (0882) 1468-3516.
He said the identification of 15 bodies had been conducted after the police received reports about missing family members, based on which the DVI team took DNA samples to match with the DNA of the bodies.
A joint team of the National Police Criminal Investigation Department and Jakarta Police are continuing a search of the incident site for evidence and clues as to what triggered the fire. Developing information, the team has reportedly questioned 14 people, nine of them from Pertamina.
Assisted by military personnel, the police have deployed heavy equipment and the K-9 unit (sniffer dogs) to search for any possibly unrecovered victims at the location of the fire.
Ahmad said they could not conclude the cause of the fire just yet, for which the police would make use of the Indonesian Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (Pusinafis) Center and apply scientific investigation methods. "Of course, finding the cause must be done through comprehensive investigation down to the source of the fire," he said.
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