Illegal Mining Makes Doni Monardo Risau With The Nickname Padang "The Happy City"

Doni Monardo (Photo: Special)

JAKARTA - Doni Monardo nicknamed Padang "a happy city" given by novelist Ali Akbar Navis. The Minang-blooded man saw a lot of natural damage, especially due to mining, in West Sumatra, was the reason.

Doni's concern has been felt for a long time. The more worried he was when he received President Jokowi's mandate to lead the 2019-2021 National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).

Dalam berbagai kunjungan ke Sumatera Barat terkait kebencanaan, ia melihat langsung bagaimana sungai-sai tidak lagi jelas airnya. Longsor yang melanda serta banjir bandang yang merribatkan.

River polluters are illegal mining practices. Even though many illegal miners have been prosecuted by security forces, in fact, their existence is still rampant in the field.

The problem of West Sumatra is not only in the matter of illegal mining. For example, based on the results of monitoring by the BNPB Joint Team, Kompas Daily, and environmental observers in South Solok at the end of 2019, it was found that the protected forest area in the Batanghari river basin had been badly damaged.

Doni's concern was spilled when he gave a public lecture in front of about 400 students of ISI Padang Panjang. This event lasted two hours on Friday, October 21 at Adam's Huriah Show Building.

Doni invites the Minang community in general, as well as the younger generation in particular to jointly protect Minang's nature so that it recovers. Nature that is sustainable is not only for us, but a legacy for future generations.

On that occasion, Doni also conveyed his concern about the abrasion that occurred on Padang Beach.

As a child, I often ran around, played football on the beach. I remember, the distance from the shoreline is relatively far, but the current conditions are very different. The distance from the shoreline to the road is getting closer because of abrasion," Doni said in an official statement received by the editor.

Doni invites the Minang community without exception to save Padang Beach with a vegetation-based mitigation option. Among other things with the formation of Kuncio.

With the method of submerged offshore breakwater (watered offshore wave breakers) and designated offshore breakwater, in the future the waves that carry sand will gradually create sandturns, which can then become an additional new "land".