Pontianak – Fertilizer, pesticide, palm oil waste which are suspected to flow in the canals of plantations to the rivers around until Sentarum Lake have polluted the National Park of Sentarum Lake in District of Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan.

As being written in Kompas, the water of large and small river gets yellowish and flows to Sentarum Lake. The people aroung the rivers get stomachache and skin disease. Executive Director of Yayasaan Riak Bumi, Valentinus Heri said, there is no scientific research about the water pollution yet. But there are some evidences.

The pollution has been running since 2004 when palm oil companies starting their investment in the region. One river having the pollution is Tawang River. It is the important river to fulfill the people’s daily needs, such as, water to drink, and wash. Now it is not used again.

The researcher from Swandiri Institute, Arif Munandar said, the region around National Park of Sentarum Lake is the wetland area so there should be no palm oil concession area. But in facts, there are about 3.000 hectares area in the region turned to be palm oil plantation concession area.

In ther region too, there are areal substitution function from protected forest to be areal usage. But it is for the people who live for years before the government put the status of the forest to be national park and protected forest.

In reality, areal usage is used to legalize the violations there.(T2)

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