Two Indonesian Locations Cited as World's Worst Polluted Places
6 November 2013 08:14 WIB
TEMPO.CO, New York - The New York-based Blacksmith Institute and Green CrossSwitzerland recently published the 2013 report of the world's worst pollutedplaces, The Top Ten Toxic Threats: Cleanup, Progress, and Ongoing Challenges. Two of the ten are found in Indonesia: the Citarum River in West Java and two provinces in Kalimantan.
According to the report, the world's worst polluted places in 2013 are: Agbogbloshie, Ghana; Chernobyl, Ukraine; Citarum River, Indonesia; Dzershinsk, Russia; Hazaribagh, Bangladesh; Kabwe, Zambia; Kalimantan, Indonesia.
This is the first list of polluted sites released by the two groups since2007. In the intervening years, the report explains, much has been learnedabout pollution issues in low- and medium-income countries. Efforts madeby country governments in particular have greatly expanded the existingknowledge of pollution issues. In addition, Blacksmith Institute hasconducted more than 2,000 risk assessments at contaminated sites in 49countries."We estimate that the health of more than 200million people is at risk from pollution in the developing world, " said Richard Fuller, president of Blacksmith Institute.
The Citarum River Basin in Bandung, West Java, covers an area of approximately 13,000.
square kilometers, coming into contact with a population of 9 million people.The river provides as much as 80% of surface water to Jakarta’s water supply authority, irrigates farms that supply 5% of Indonesia’s rice, and is a source of water for upwards of 2,000 factories.Contaminants from both industrial and domestic sources are present in the Citarum River, according to the report.
In Central and South Kalimantan provinces, Artisanal Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) forms the primary source of income for 43,000 people. The vast majority of ASGM miners globally utilize mercury in the gold extraction process. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) estimates that more than 1,000 tons of mercury are released into the environment each year through this process. Many miners smelt within the home, releasing dangerous amounts of mercury vapor that are trapped inside. Additionally, mercury released during the amalgamation process (before smelting) is easily released into area waterways where it can accumulate in fish and water. One article published in the Journal of Water and Environment Technology in 2008 found a concentration of mercury in the Kahayan River of Central Kalimantan that was 2,260 ng/L, more than twice Indonesia’s standard for total mercury in drinking water (1,000 ng/L).
The Blacksmith Institute and Green Cross Switzerland report said that the Indonesian government is making progress on this problem. As a signatory to the recently adopted Minamata Convention on Mercury (October 10, 2013), Indonesia has taken an important step with the international community to limit anthropogenic releases of mercury. Additionally, the Ministry of Environment has long supported the work of NGOs like Blacksmith Institute and Yayasan Tambuhak Sinta (YTS) to work with miners in a collaborative fashion to mitigate their releases and exposure.
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