Palembang – More than 30 cases of environmental destruction, mostly in the form of pollution created by the oil and gas industries, were recorded over the past three years across South Sumatra.

The data was revealed by the director of the South Sumatran chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), Sri Lestari Kadariah, on Friday, who said the cases involved oil and gas pipe leaks, pipe explosions and oil well gushes. Three incidents have already occurred in the first three months of this year.

"The latest incident was a leak from state oil company Pertamina's processing unit tank, which polluted Rebo and Komering rivers on March 8, which so far has not been restored," Sri said.

She said Walhi investigated the case and found that Pertamina could only clean the oil sludge floating on the rivers by hiring villagers to conduct the manual labor.

The provincial Environmental Impact Control Agency sent a warning letter to Pertamina calling for the company to immediately remedy the situation and report the matter to the governor through the agency.