Mercury waste plagues Minahasa
Tuesday, June 20 2000 - 03:30 AM WIB
The Minahasa district in North Sulawesi is in danger of suffering from mercury pollution resulted from uncontrolled illegal gold mining activities, according to Minahasa Regent Dolfie Tanor.
Tanor said on Monday at a meeting with the North Sulawesi governor in Manado that illegal mining activities in Minahasa produced about 90 tons of mercury waste per day, much higher than the "minimata" case in Japan, which produced only about 27 tons of mercury waste.
Illegal mining activities were spreading in Dimembe, Likupang, Belang and Motoling sub-districts, involving thousands of illegal miners and about 1,500 gold ore crashing machines.
The miners just dispose water from the crashing machines which contains mercury to the nearby rivers. This could pose a potential danger and even disaster for Minahasa people, Tanor said.
He pleaded helps from related state institutions to handle the matter and educate the illegal miners about the danger of disposing mercury-polluted water to rivers.
Tanor also reported that the establishment of a foundation to take care of community development funds from PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) had not been completed because of disagreements in the formation of the foundation's executive board.
Tanor said his party wanted that Newmont only nominates employees who are Minahasa descent only to become executives at the foundation so that they would have a strong commitment to develop Minahasa. But Newmont insists that the company should have the freedom to choose its people to the foundation to ensure that the money reaches the targeted people as the regency has also its freedom to place its people.
Because of the standoff, the company has not yet disbursed the US$1.5 million fund it has promised for community development. (*)