Environmental problems in Indonesia

Does the government do anything to fix it?

Since the late 1960s, the government has addressed increasing environmental problems by establishing resource-management programs, conducting environmental-impact analysis, developing better policy enforcement, and enacting appropriate laws to give government officials proper authority.

Air pollution

Air pollution, caused by rapidly rising levels of motor-vehicle emissions (90 percent of vehicles still use leaded fuel) and by forest fires linked to palm-oil plantation development, have given rise to respiratory problems that have become the country’s sixth most common cause of death. Forest fires in Kalimantan during 1997–98 produced a thick, smoky haze that covered much of Southeast Asia, resulting in closed schools and businesses as well as deaths and illnesses related to respiratory disorders. The fires also drew worldwide attention to the uncertain future of the region’s forest resources. [Source: Library of Congress]

Resources

water pollution

• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/29/rate-of-deforestation-in-indonesia-overtakes-brazil-says-study
• http://factsanddetails.com/indonesia/Nature_Science_Animals/sub6_8c/entry-4090.html#chapter-15
• http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2015/03/11/indonesia-government-addresses-deforestation-challenges-in-its-aim-to-double-palm-oil-production-by-2020.html

Deforestation

Use of toxic chemicals

Forest fires have become a seasonal phenomenon in Indonesia. At the root of the problem is the practice of forest clearance known as slash and burn, where land is set on fire as a cheaper way to clear it for new planting. Peat soil, which characterizes much of the affected areas, is highly flammable, causing localized fires to spread and making them difficult to stop.

Some substances have not been regulated like nonylphenol ethoxylate and pthalate, which can cause reproductive disorders and cancer. These substances were found in Citarum River.The two substances have been phased out of many products in the United States and Europe due to health risks, yet they are still use them a lot in Indonesia’s textile industry. The short-term impact of these chemicals are, for instance, skin diseases, which have infected residents of Majalaya, West Java. And they could lead to skin cancer in the long run.

Indonesia has some of the worst water pollution in Asia. The shortage of sewerage facilities is an especially serious problem. For example, because less than 3 percent of Jakarta’s population is connected to a sewerage system, the city’s waste is typically discharged either into private septic tanks or directly into rivers or canals. Sewage disposal into such bodies of water is linked in particular with repeated epidemics of gastrointestinal infection. In rural areas, runoff from increased use of pesticides and fertilizers has resulted in raised levels of toxicity in the water supply, excessive accumulation of algae in riverbeds, and the consequent destruction of marine life. The coastal commercial sector suffers from environmental pressures originating in the highland interiors of the islands. Soil erosion from upland deforestation exacerbates the problem of silting downstream and into the sea. Silt deposits cover and kill once-lively coral reefs, creating mangrove thickets and making harbor access increasingly difficult, if not impossible, without massive and expensive dredging operations. [Source: Library of Congress]

Are these efforts working?

Despite these efforts that the government is doing, corruption, overlapping competencies among government departments, and legal uncertainties about departmental jurisdictions have slowed progress against environmental degradation.

mercury poisoning and gold mining

Environmental problems in Indonesia

In Indonesia, the gold industry supports some three million people, many of them small time miners in Kalimantan who often poisoned themselves, their families and the land with mercury and other pollutants. There are 60,000 hectares of denuded area that are completely marked like this. Its a really big space and if we waited a really long time for anything to grow their we would only find a few vegetation would grow but never a rainforest .