Indonesia Devastated By Pollution, Lead Levels In Children

[hatrack]

Indonesia's Half-Hearted Pollution Battle
By Dianthus Saputra Estey in Jakarta
Sunday 05 October 2003

"Indonesia is severely polluted - forget environmental groups, even the Asian Development Bank and World Bank rank the country as one of the world's worst. In fact, it comes in third, after Mexico and Thailand.

EDIT

Environmental concern during the development boom of the 80s ws not top of President Suharto's agenda. But today's Indonesians are paying an expensive price for this neglect. According to the latest research published by the Clean Air Project Swisscontact and the USEPA (United States Environmental Partnership), 82.4% of school-age children in Indonesia have higher lead level(s) in their blood than is recognised as safe.

EDIT

But there is still no public awareness of the problem. Activists condemned President Megawati's latest annual report for not mentioning environmental issues at all. (Ed. Deputy Environment Minister Tanwir) Mukawi, however, is quick to defend the government. 'It is not true that the government is ignoring the problem . . . our Blue Sky programme aims to free Indonesia of leaded petrol by 2005.'

EDIT

So although the head of Pertamina's public relations says such difficulties can be overcome and that the state owned company will be able to produce a better quanlity of fuel, no one is expecting significant change soon. Even foreign investors need persuading. The OPEC member country has been oil-sufficient since 1975, but exports have been falling for years. In 1997, the government exported 1.5 million barrels a day. Now it sells 1.2 million. The question seems to be how Jakarta will foot the bill for cleaning up its mess."

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AlJazeera Online

[MasonJar]

1. Suharta sounds just like DUBYA

Did Suharta have training camps?