If Paracetamol Pollution In Jakarta Bay Is Deliberate, DKI Prepares To Give Sanctions

ILLUSTRATION/BETWEEN DOCKS/Jakarta Bay

JAKARTA - Deputy Governor of DKI Jakarta Ahmad Riza Patria admitted that he did not know for sure the cause of the contamination of seawater in Jakarta Bay with paracetamol content.

Riza considered that this paracetamol contamination could not be carried out by individual residents who disposed of the medicine and eventually collected it. This pollution, he believed, was carried out by a group of people.

"It's impossible for one person to throw it away, right. There must be a group of people. It means, not every single person throws away, buys, eventually collects, it's not like that," said Riza at DKI City Hall, Central Jakarta, Monday, 4 October.

If this is proven based on research from the DKI Jakarta Environmental Agency (LH) and it is found that it was intentional, Riza said that his party would impose sanctions on the perpetrators.

"Of course we are doing research. Later we will also check whether the element is intentional or not. Of course there are sanctions, there are regulations. Once again, we will wait for the results of the research," he said.

On Saturday, October 2 last week, the Department of Environment took samples of seawater from Jakarta Bay at four points. The Department of Environment wants to make sure the sea water is still polluted. Bearing in mind, the research sample on the content of paracetamol was carried out in 2017.

Riza said this research took about two weeks.

"It will take approximately 14 days. Later the results of the research will be submitted regarding the presence of contaminated paracetamol in Jakarta Bay," said Riza.

Previously, a study stated that seawater in Jakarta Bay contained paracetamol. This study of water pollution on the coast of the capital city was published in a sciencedirect.com bulletin in August 2021.

The results of the research on the content of paracetamol that were carried out revealed that Angke had a high concentration of Paracetamol content, which was 610 ng/L, and Ancol was 420 ng/L.

In this study, this is the first study to analyze the picture of sea water quality related to paracetamol contamination in coastal waters around Indonesia. However, scientists say this preliminary picture study still needs further analysis.