Air Pollution In Marunda Still Occurs, KCN Port Becomes A Victim Of Salahangkap?

Photo: Special

JAKARTA - FMRM Bureau Muhammad Riza Maulana revealed that air pollution in the Marunda area, Cilincing, North Jakarta, still occurs even though the port of Karya Citra Nusantara (KCN) has been closed since July 2022.

"Indeed, for some residents, the pollution is currently even worse, is it possible that the KCN Port is only a victim of the DKI Jakarta DLH investigation?" Riza said in a written statement, Friday, December 16.

DLH DKI Jakarta has closed the operational permit for the KCN Public Terminal Port since July 2022 in the aftermath of allegations of air pollution due to coal unloading activities from ships inside the port. However, residents of Marunda, especially in Rusunawa Marunda, still often complain that currently coal dust pollution is getting worse.

Responding to this, the Head of the Environmental Service (LH) of the Special Capital Region (DKI) Jakarta Asep Kuswanto claimed to have investigated four companies whose tracks were suspected to have caused coal dust pollution in Rusunawa Marunda. Based on the results of the investigation, Asep claimed that the emission levels of the four companies were still below the quality standard.

"Is this due to the lack of competence of the Head of Service (Head of Department) of LH (DKI Jakarta) itself. Or maybe because the village occurs, the sanctions are not in the context of finding solutions but only limited to showing off work which does not result in anything for our environment. The proof is that we are still polluted, it is getting worse polluted," he said.

For the record, coal dust particles from the demolition at the KCN port are unlikely to pollute because they are not the result of coal burning. This means that the particles are too heavy to be far away from the wind compared to coal ash particles (fly ash) which are the result of burning coal in factories.

Met separately, a resident of Rusunawa Marunda Lusi Mariana Harahap said that residents of Rusunawa Marunda had received assistance in the form of an ounce of cooking oil for one family head (KK), half butter, and two sticks of mosquito medicine. However, Mariana did not know who the assistance was from.

"A lot, right, great. I asked the people here who shared it or who received it, he said [from] NN," said Mariana.

He continued, if the Head of the DKI Jakarta LH Service does not have a solution to the pollution that occurs and does not have information on who did this pollution, then the FMRM encourages the Head of the DKI Jakarta LH Service to resign from his position because he does not have the competence in the field he chaired.