The Ministry Of Industry Denies That The Cement Industry Is The Cause Of Air Pollution In Jabodetabek, This Is The Explanation

Illustration of Air Pollution (Photo: dock. Antara)

The Directorate General (Ditjen) of Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Textile Industries (IKFT) has denied that the operation of the cement industry in the Jabodetabek area has been one of the causes of air pollution in the area recently.

Director of the Semen, Ceramics, and Processing Industry of Non-Aligned Galian Materials, Directorate General of IKFT of the Ministry of Industry, Wiwik Pudjiastuti, said that the cement industry in the Jabodetabek area has mostly implemented continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS).

"Actually, most of the cement industry already has CEMS which is directly connected to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK). So, from there the Ministry of Environment and Forestry can control the emissions issued," Wiwik said in a media briefing in Jakarta, on Monday, August 28.

Wiwik added, if the industrial sector is said to be one of the causes of air pollution, the government can already monitor and control the emissions issued by the industry through the CEMS.

"If the cement industry is the cause (air pollution), the Ministry of Environment and Forestry should already know first," he added.

He said that his party had also carried out mapping and data collection in three large cement industries in Jabodetabek, namely PT Solusi Bangun Indonesia Tbk, PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa Tbk and PT Jui Shin Indonesia (JSI).

Based on the data collection carried out, two of them have been monitored directly and it turns out that they did not cross the threshold for emission provisions.

"From the results of monitoring, indeed the emissions issued did not exceed the limits of suspicion, because indeed the system has been built," said Wiwik.

On the other hand, continued Wiwik, several cement industries have also utilized new and renewable energy (EBT) in the form of waste to replace coal.

"(So) the emissions are controlled and emissions that are beyond the threshold are likely to be small," he said.

On the same occasion, Plt. The Director General of IKFT at the Ministry of Industry, Ignatius Warsito, said that his party had submitted a letter to all IKFT associations to immediately map out the level of emissions in these industrial sectors.

"God willing, this week we can find out the portrait and how much contribution the IKFT sector has to that air pollution," he explained.

Warsito did not deny that it is the government's authority to encourage industries to be more environmentally friendly in the future.

"We want the IKFT sector to be also environmentally friendly. So, we have been monitoring it since post-COVID-19, we have blusukan it to each industry, so we want to make sure that they have also used green energy," he concluded.