South Kalimantan govt warned over mercury pollution

An environmental unit of the Unpar University warned the South Kalimantan administration to immediately curb illegal gold mining activity as mercury level in local rivers have reached an alarming level.

Head of the environmental unit Andrie Elia said that the university had just conducted survey on several rivers and found out that the mercury level had breached the threshold point.

He said that the mercury was a result of the rampant illegal gold mining activity in the province.

The danger of high mercury level in the environment to human being has been repeatedly explained by experts and the local government had also several times warned about the rampant illegal gold mining activity, but the warning seems to go unheeded as illegal mining provides huge employment as well as source of earnings for certain influential people.(*)