Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – Simpang Kampong, a small coastal village in Mauk district in the north of Tangerang regency, has a seemingly inexhaustible supply of sand.
Covering a few hectares, dozens of people, every day, illegally quarry sand there. These people, who work in groups of five to 10, come from neighboring villages such as Marga Mulya, Ketapang, Tanjung Anom and Karang Serang.
The quarriers, who dig up to 10 meters into the ground and create deep holes as large as a football pitch, seem to be unconcerned about the possibility of a landslide burying them alive.
Making a quick profit is the only thing on their mind. They don't care at all, even though they realize that their activity has damaged the environment and disrupted irrigation for farmers.
"It's too dangerous for you to enter the quarry. Workers will attack any journalist who tries to enter and take pictures," Sarmili, a local, told The Jakarta Post recently.
The Post observed several small channels on the floor of the large hole, where workers move sand with the help of a powerful water jet. A motor blows the sand from the dredging site onto the ground where dozens of workers and trucks await.
Quarrying, Sarmili says, has resulted in the erosion of more than 10,000 cubic meters of land in the village, on which rice was formerly grown.
"We have repeatedly filed complaints with the district office over the dredging, but it's all to no avail because local officials are bribed to look the other way by the operation's owner," he said.
Hundreds of residents from Tegal Kunir Lor, Banyuasin, Ketapang, Marga Mulya villages and Kampong Simpang have repeatedly protested the operation because it has disrupted irrigation in the past three years.
The villagers' main source of income is agriculture. When their protests were ignored, angry residents attacked workers at the mine, which is owned by Jakarta-based businessman Herman Wijaya.
They set fire to the workers' dormitory and destroyed pipelines and machines in April 2004. The police then arrested six local residents following a brawl with workers during the assault.
They were charged with inciting villagers to attack the mine workers and destroy on-site facilities, although two villagers were attacked by the workers and were rushed to hospital with machete wounds.
Sukwadi, from Marga Mulya, said that the sand dredging operation had also changed the ecosystem and disrupted ground water supply in the village since it began in 2000.
"The miners have violated Bylaw No. 20/2004 on public order and security. But they have continued their operations, despite forcible closure by the administration," he said.
Tangerang regent Ismet Iskandar issued written orders to the public order agency to close down unlawful sand quarries in Cisauk, Curug, Legok and Kresek districts, but business is still as usual at present.
"This is a matter of basic survival; we need money to feed our families," quarry workers replied angrily when the Post asked them why they continued.
One of them, Usman, 28, is from Ketapang village. He began digging for sand in 2001. Before that he was a fisherman, but fuel price increases caused him to shift to sand quarrying to keep body and soul together.
"If the Tangerang regental administration bans quarrying and closes the site here we won't have any source of income. We make only Rp 15,000 to Rp 20,000 a day – just enough to buy three kilograms of rice," he said.
Work at the site usually runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. The sand is sold to a middleman for Rp 50,000 for a small truckload and Rp 150,000 per medium-sized load. Each person working at the site earns an average of Rp 20,000 a day.
The middleman then sells the sand to another middleman for Rp 75,000 to Rp 125,000 per small load and Rp 175,000 to Rp 250,000 per medium truckload.
"I sell the sand at Rp 75,000 per cubic meter. Sometimes I can sell four truckloads a day. Recently, demand has been quite low. I hire five men to carry the sand. Each is paid Rp 10,000 a day," said Samrah, 45, a middleman.
It is clear that the quarrying has damaged the environment. This could also lead to devastating landslides, particularly for those living in neighboring villages.
It is feared that if the operation continues, farmers living near the area will suffer from water shortages and many wells used by locals will dry up.
Environmental damage caused by quarrying is a hot topic of debate at plenary meetings of the Tangerang regental legislative council. The council tends to blame the administration for being too soft in dealing with the quarrying problem.
However, the administration argues that it cannot do much because the people involved in quarrying are poor and are simply trying to survive.
Head of the regental public order agency Odang Masduki has his own explanation as to why nothing is being done to put a halt to the illegal activity across the regency. "We closed the site six times between 2004 and this year. We erected a gate at the entrance but the quarrying continues apace. We are powerless against hundreds, possibly thousands, of illegal quarriers. It all depends on the land," he said.
It seems that the local administration has yet to find a way to address the problem of environmental damage in its area. Instead, it is too busy blaming others.