Households in Riau complain water source contaminated by oil waste

Households in the Merbau Belitung district in Riau Province complained that their wells as the source of clean water had been contaminated by waste materials allegedly coming from the oil well of PT Kondur Petroleum, the local Riau Post daily reported.

The paper said that this problem has caused the people to have difficulty to obtain clean water.

The paper quoted Merbau councilor Musdar Mustafa as saying that the company, which had shut down the wells since 1997, had already sent a team to check the problem but it had yet to disclose the finding.

The local environmental watchdog Bapedalda had also sent a team to investigate the case, but the finding is still be studied at a special laboratory in Bandung, West Java.

Meanwhile, Riau Post daily said that a couple of villagers had been offered a compensation by Kondur Petroleum. The paper said that two villagers by the name of Wan Masud and Tarso had initially been offered a compensation of Rp 31 million, but the company finally only gave Rp 7.5 million.(*)