Amdal of companies in Riau will be reviewed

The provincial office of the Environmental Impact Supervision Agency (Bapedalda) in Riau will review analysts on the environmental impact (Amdal) of big companies operating in Dumai will be reviewed to ensure if they are still relevant to the present condition, Riau Pos reported on Monday.

Asyari Saleh, the head of Bapedalda in the province, said most of the Amdal documents of the existing companies were already too old to reflect the real condition of their operations and they, therefore, should be reviewed.

"At present, many companies in Riau dump their industrial waste every where they like without considering the impact of the waste to the environment," he said, adding that such practices had taken place for years due to the lack of control from the related authority.

Dumai, is one of the country's largest oil production area, hosts oil giants including Pertamina, Caltex Pacific Indonesia, Inti Benua, Smark and Aspalindo, Most of them open their industrial sites in the coastal area. They dump their industrial waste into the sea without proper environmental standards, Asyari said.

He said that noise and air pollution resulted from the companies' operation have also annoyed the people living in the town. "The color of the roofs of the houses in the town have turned to black and gray due to the thick dust," he said. (*)