MHU's mining activities disturb school activities
Monday, February 26 2001 - 04:30 AM WIB
About 90 students of State Elementary School 062 in Tenggarong subdistrict, Kutai district, East Kalimantan, could not study well in their school because of mining activities by PT Multi Harapan Utama (MHU).
The company is currently conducting mining activities only less than 20 meters away from the school, located at kilometer 15 on the Tenggarong-Kota Bangun road.
The location of the school is currently right inside MHU's mining concession areas, and therefore, the company is asked to move the school out of the concession areas.
"We don't know if the school will be relocated. But it's so noisy here because of the use of many heavy equipment to do mining activities," said Usman, one of the teachers at the school.
The head of the East Kalimantan mining office, Istiardjo, and the head of the province's Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedalda), Lilik Djauhari, said that they would check first whether the mining activities really disturbed study activities at the school.
"I will send my people to check the condition of the elementary school. If the study activities are disturbed by the mining activities, then the school must be moved out and a new building must be built. The company must first of all meet its environmental impact analysis," Istiardjo said.
Meanwhile, PT MHU spokesman Nela Fernandez said the company had just conducted its mining activities for three weeks over a 50,000 concession area.
But Nela ruled out the possibility of relocating the school, arguing that based on its environmental impact analysis, its mining activities would not seriously affect activities at the school.
"We have also consulted with the Kutai Education office, and there is no problem about our mining activities, and therefore, it doesn't need to relocate the school," Nela said, adding that mining activities near the school would last in six weeks. (*)