Jakarta – Claims by protestors that Maninjau Water Electric Power Plant (PLTA) in West Sumatra has polluted Lake Maninjau and damaged fishery cultivation at the lake, are groundless, say local officials. Protestors are seeking closure of the plant.
"What we need to do here is undertake a new and comprehensive examination of the [alleged] water pollution and environmental damage. To simply close down Maninjau PLTA, which has been in operation since 1980, will not solve the problem, and will mean we will not have electricity in this region," Regional Environment Coordinator in West Sumatra, Edi Dasril, was quoted as saying by Antara in Padang yesterday.
"I am sure a good feasibility study was carried out prior to the construction of this power plant. Any effort to dismantle it now will only mean a big loss for our region," he said.
While protestors claim demand for water by the Maninjau PLTA has seen depletion of water supplies at the lake, Dasril said that the decrease in water levels is a result of uncontrollable and illegal forest destruction.
"For example, if in the last decade we had rain forest at Tanjung Raya, Pelembayan, and Bukit Batu at Agam Regency, all we have now is barren land. The log-cutters have cut the down trees and sold them to foreign countries. And with no more forest to help preserve the rain water for the lake, it now directly flows into the sea," he said.
Following protests by locals seeking closure of the plant, a team headed by engineer, Edison Munaf, has been established to carry out an environmental audit, and to establish the reasons behind the environmental pollution which has taken place.
More than Rp200 million has been allocated to the environmental audit. Munaf said he hoped the audit would be completed within six months. He added that no matter what the outcome of the audit was, to close the plant would spell a big loss for the region. "We need simple things here: better efforts by police to arrest the illegal loggers and put them all in jail," he said.
In answer to questions about increased pollution levels in Lake Maninjau, Munaf said the plant is practically pollution-free because no oil or other pollutant agents were thrown into the lake.
He stressed that illegal loggers are to blame for the pollution, because they dump solid waste into the rivers and tributaries that flow into the lake. If police are successful in their attempts to arrest those responsible for the illegal logging, they will solve two problems: forest destruction and pollution of the lake.