Hanging on Pertamina's Promises At Prabumulih

By: Syam Asinar Radjam & Syamsul Bahri Radjam

The river Kelekar in Prabumulih, South Sumatera has acquired a new name. It is now also known as 'Kali Minyak', which means river of oil, a name given by new settlers coming into the area (mostly originating from Java). The new name is unsurprisingly suitable. It is nearly a century since the first oil exploration began in the area, thus it is hardly surprising that the flow of Kelekar river is now laden with crude oil (sludge) and water residue originating from oil processing operations by PERTAMINA.

The pollution of the Kelekar river system and its surrounding area by PERTAMINA Operation Exploration and Production II (now known as Upstream Operation Area/DOH) of Prabumulih had ignited a wave of protests from the Prabumulih community in early 2000.



In 1907 (the Dutch Indies era), oil mining was first started by BPM (De Bataafshe Petroleum Maatschappij), a private Dutch company. Later on, with the arrival the Japanese (1942), management of the oil wells changed hands. Next on the line was PT Shell that took over straight away after the Japanese defeat. Not until sometime in 1948, PERMINA took control of the wells. Then, in the 1950's, PERMINA gradually turned into PERTAMINA.

"We could only watch our suho gehedek (local tongue for natural wealth) taken away by the company (PERTAMINA), while what's left for us is only the excess (sludge)!" said a community member of Prabumulih village during several acts of protest in mid 2000 on the sludge dumping by PERTAMINA.

This statement was the result of a series of damages and impacts suffered by the community living along the Kelekar river system and its surrounding area. The pollution has caused the severe drop in water quality and the extinction of the river biota that had been abundant. In fact, the Prabumulih traditional calendar system confirmed this fact since it is used to mention a tradition called 'nanggok berdusun' among its list of events, which was a tradition where an entire village would get together and communally gathered fish from the river.

Furthermore, the waste also polluted the community's wells, destroyed local rice fields, and often seeped into community's rubber plantation, forest and 'Tanah Budal' (indigenous lands). The damages were worsened since the company's method in cleaning the river from oil was to burn it off by setting the river ablaze.

After protests made by communities and local organization (Solidarity for Prabumulih Environment) together with Walhi South Sumatra, Palembang Legal Aid Foundation, and IMPALM Foundation, PERTAMINA finally admitted their fault in polluting the river Kelekar and agreed to fulfill the 10 community's demands. The company has realized three of those demands during the course of year 2000 up to mid 2001.

These three demands are for the company to:

Cease polluting Kelekar river,
Provide clean water resources for the community (drilled wells, clean water tanks, well and clothes-washing area for community on the river bank).
Support capacity development of local human resources (scholarships, training, course, etc).

While the other 7 points, yet to be realized, are for the company to:

Rehabilitate the Kelekar river system and catchment area,
Reforestate the Kelekar river system and catchment area,
Pay compensation for all damages done,
Provide free Health Care Service for the local community,
Apologize according to local traditions
Build and renovate places of worship (mosques)
Build and renovate the village hall.

Unfortunately, PERTAMINA has always considered all pollution caused by their activity in Prabumulih as past collective mistakes. They seemed to display lack of seriousness in following through with their commitment to stop polluting the river since several incidents of pollution still occurred even after the agreement was signed.

The community further urged the company to restore the environmental quality of the area and to acknowledge the community's rights on their natural resources by coming out with several demands, among others were:

The implementation of strict liability and the restoration of PERTAMINA's production units so that the oil exploitation process will no longer cause grief and damages for the local community.
Community should be given the opportunity to be fully involved in any decision making process of the company.
Community is still waiting for the further understanding of the company's promises as agreed upon within the agreement by both parties.

WRITTEN BY: Syam Asinar Radjam (Coordinator of City Pollution Division of WALHI of South Sumatra), and Syamsul Bahri Radjam, SH (Staff of Natural Resources Division of Palembang Legal Aid Foundation, South Sumatera), 2001.
published by KEREBOK Advocacy Mining Network (JATAM), Volume 3, Number 13, August 2001 dan Minergy News

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