Indonesia BAN sand export to Singapore!

Indonesia has been exporting sand to Singapore for a very long time. Recently they have ban all sand export to Singapore. They gave environmental issue as the reason.

Is Indonesia REALLY so concern about its environment? Let us see some facts;

Environmental issues in Indonesia associated with human activities are forest degration (unregulated cutting, fires, smoke and haze, and erosion); water pollution from industrial waste and sewage; air pollution from motor vehicles and industry in urban areas, and generally from smoke and haze caused by forest fires; and threats to biodiversity and rare plant and animal species.


Air Pollution

Air pollution is perhaps Indonesia's most severe environmental problem. According to an official at the World Bank office in Jakarta, "air pollution imposes costs of at least $400 million on the Indonesian economy every year." It also has very a serious impact on public health. For example, inflammation of the respiratory tract, which is directly linked to air quality, was the sixth leading cause of death in Indonesia (after accidents, diarrhea, cardiovascular disease, tuberculosis, and measles).

Motor vehicles are one of the chief sources of air pollution in Indonesia. Between 1995 and 2001, the number of vehicles in Indonesia grew from 12 million to almost 21 million. Many of these vehicles are motorcycles or scooters, which lack the catalytic converters required for cleaner emissions. Moreover, almost no motor vehicles in Indonesia use unleaded gasoline. Instead, the vast majority of these vehicles rely on either leaded gasoline or diesel fuel, leading to unhealthily high concentrations of airborne lead.

A study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control found that over a third of the children examined had blood lead levels high enough to potentially adversely affect cognitive development.

Forest fires also contribute to Indonesian air pollution. Often these fires result from illegal logging of Indonesia's rain forests. During 1997 and 1998, the fires were especially severe. Nearly 10 million hectares burned, producing a haze that impacted all of Southeast Asia. The World Bank's Indonesia Environment Monitor, 2003 states that the costs of 1997-8 fires exceeded the combined legal liabilities assessed for the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the Bhopal chemical disaster.


Water Pollution

Indonesia's water quality is deteriorating. One of the most serious problems is the lack of sewerage systems in urban areas. The Indonesia Environment Monitor notes that Indonesia ranks among the worst countries in Asia in sewerage and sanitation coverage. Few Indonesian cities possess even minimal sanitation systems. For example, according to a 2002 World Bank report, less than 3% of Jakarta's population is connected to a sewer system. The absence of an established sanitation network forces many households to rely upon private septic tanks or to dispose of their waste directly into rivers and canals. The commonality of the latter practice has led to significant contamination of Indonesia's surface and groundwater, as well as to repeated epidemics of gastrointestinal infections. As of 2001, an estimated 90% of Jakarta's shallow wells were polluted by domestic waste.

Indonesia's relative absence of controls on industrial emissions also has led to the degradation of water resources. The forthcoming report by Indonesia's State Minister for the Environment is reported to acknowledge that many factories continue to dump their liquid waste into rivers without treatment. A lack of regulations on agricultural chemicals has led to damage of water resources in Indonesia's farmlands. In large part because the growing numbers of artisanal and small-scale mines operate with little or no environmental precautions, Indonesia's mining sector is an increasingly large source of water pollution.

Indonesian coastal waters are highly polluted, especially in high traffic areas such as the Malacca and Lombok Straits, the major shipping pathway between Asia and the Middle East. Unsustainable fishing practices (e.g. blastfishing), industrial effluent, sewage, and agricultural discharges also have placed the ecosystems of Indonesia's reefs, the most biologically diverse in the world, in jeopardy. According to a 2002 report by the World Resources Institute, 86% of Indonesia's reef area (19,700 square miles) is at medium or high risk.




Somehow I have a feeling that the ban on exporting sand to Singapore is more of a political move.

It is so rubbish to think that, when our neughbours are in crisis, Singapore are often the first to offer any sort of help.

Our efforts will never be appreciated. A beautiful and huge country like indonesia... a pity that it is the idiots that is running the country.