Pertamina promises to handle river pollution

The production unit of the state owned oil and gas company Pertamina in Prabumulih, South Sumatra has promised to stop dumping oil residues into the heavily polluted Kelakar river in the regency, Sriwijaya Pos reported on Tuesday.

In a meeting with the local environmental activists and the local administration, the head of the local production unit of the state oil and gas company Darwis Siagian said that the company would totally stop dumping the oil residues into the river in November, this year at the latest.

"We will operate new machines to neutralize the oil residues and we hope by November this year at the latest, no more oil residues would pollute the water river," he said in the meeting which was also attended by some members of the local legislative council.

The local residents complained that the oil residues dumped by the state oil and gas company had caused a heavy pollution into the river, killing a wide range of fish species in the river. "In the past, the locals could use the rive water for drinking. Now even, the wells located by the river have also been heavily polluted," one of the green activists said in the meeting.

Darwis said, however, that Pertamina was not only the agency that should be responsible for the pollution in the river because other part of the waste, which polluted the river, also came from households.

The local environmental group said that based on its recent survey, about 70 percent of the waste thrown into the river came from Pertamina's local production unit and only about 30 percent came from the households. (*)