Villagers accuses MHU of polluting environment
Wednesday, March 27 2002 - 01:31 AM WIB
Villagers from Loa Kulu sub district staged Tuesday a protest at the Kutai Kertanegara regency legislative council in East Kalimantan against coal mining firm PT Multi Harapan Utama (MHU).
The local Metro Balikpapan daily reported the villagers accused MHU of polluting the local environment and caused damage to their paddy fields ready for harvest.
The paper said that the villagers to go to the council because MHU had declined to pay compensation for the damage. The villagers met with head of the council?s commission D Herry Budi Priyo Utomo.
MHU operates a mining site in the Kutai Kertanegara regency. The company recently has obtained license to expand its site to more than 20,000 hectare to allow it to increase production capacity to 2 million tons from 1.5 million tons.
MHU exports 80 percent of the coal.(*)