Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 01/25/2011
The Tangerang municipal administration warns all industrial firms that operate their factories in the municipality not to directly dispose untreated waste into rivers.
Roestiwie, head of the municipal environmental management control body, said that almost 60 percent of 2,000 industrial firms in the municipality directly funneled untreated liquid waste into rivers without being properly processed through a waste treatment facility as recommended by the law.
“We can shut down the businesses of the firms because polluting the environment violates the 2009 Environmental Management Law,” she told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Roestiwie said the administration would oblige the firms, which are now under its control, to build a proper waste treatment facility. It said it had also provided guidance in relation to proper waste management.
For industrial firms that produce dangerous waste (B3), the administration will coordinate with the Environment Ministry and oblige the firms to build their own waste sites.
“If they continue to disregard the law, we will shut down the operation of the firms and they will undergo legal processes,” she said.
In 2005, the administration took several firms to court for damaging the environment with their untreated waste.
PT Tonikitek, a towel producer at Jatake Industrial Plant, was one of the firms disposing its untreated waste into Sabi River and the owner was tried at Tangerang District Court.
The company’s owner was sentence to one year's imprisonment and was also fined Rp 100 million (US$11,000) for polluting the environment.
