KLH Sanctions 67 Companies related to Sumatra Floods

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Environment (KLH) has imposed administrative sanctions on 67 companies in three provinces affected by floods last year for being one of the factors in the occurrence of hydrometeorological disasters in the region.

Minister of Environment (LH)/Head of the Environment Control Agency (BPLH) Hanif Faisol Nurofiq said that KLH/BPLH had verified 175 companies in Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra that were engaged in the mining sector, oil palm plantations and owners of the Forest Utilization Permit (PBPH) in the Production Forest (HP) which indicated that they had opened an area of 1,805,615 hectares (ha).

"Starting from the process of issuing administrative sanctions to the criminal process and partly because the environmental approval process in our province is entrusted to the province. Some of them are in forestry and we return them to forestry and of the 175, there are two that are not operating," said Hanif as reported by ANTARA, Monday, April 6.

Of this amount, the administrative sanction in the form of government coercion to conduct environmental audits has been given to 22 business units and is still in the process of issuing a total of 45 business units. A total of 67 companies received sanctions.

For the civil lawsuit, six companies in North Sumatra were sued with a total lawsuit value of Rp. 4,947,238,454,610. Meanwhile, the companies that were charged with criminal offenses by KLH/BPLH were a total of six companies.

Hanif also said that he had conducted a rapid environmental study related to the draft spatial and territorial plan of the three provinces affected by flooding.

"Post-disaster housing has been arranged in detail, we provide detailed directions per spatial per sub-district. Which locations should be avoided in the construction of permanent housing and which locations still have the capacity to build fast housing," he explained.

From the study, his party found a gap between the strategic environmental study (KLHS) and the spatial and regional plan, which caused the severity of the impact of hydrometeorological disasters.

The study itself has been submitted to the relevant parties to prevent similar flood disasters from occurring again.