Dozens of people from Flores Island, Padarincang in Serang regency of Banten province, Gede Pangrango Mount National Park in West Java, and Maluku staged a protest in front of the Directorate General of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), in Jakarta on Wednesday, July 17, 2024 against hazardous geothermal projects in the country.
An environmentalist with the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), Alfarhat Kasman, who accompanied the protesters, said that the Indonesian government’s efforts to boost the development of geothermal energy sources are disastrous for residents and the environment.
“To date, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has produced a map of 356 geothermal mining prospects within the Indonesian Ring of Fire that are vulnerable to disaster attacks. Sixty-four of them are in the process of mining,” he said.
“Worse is the fact that all of these geothermal projects had not involved the Indonesian people in the entire policy-making process,” he added.
Alfarhat alleged that geothermal mining and extraction to generate electrical power had several times triggered earthquakes, not at a level that could be ignored, but even to a seismic scale above 3.
He said that Jatam had warned the seismic authorities and the ESDM ministry of the links between earthquake events in areas around geothermal mining projects.
“They have not once responded, let alone conducted a serious investigation of the earthquake hazardous risk or produced regular reports that befits the responsibilities of an industry regulator before the Constitution and the law,” Alfarhat said.
He quoted reports which accuse PT Sorik Marapi Geothermal Power’s (SMGP) activities in Mandailing Natal regency, North Sumatra, of threatening water sources, rice fields and residential areas, as well as having killed seven people and exposed hundreds others to toxic H2S gas. Meanwhile, in Dieng, Wonosobo, PT GeoDipa’s operations have reportedly killed two people and poisoned dozens others of H2S gas due to repeated leaks.
In Mataloko, Flores, PT PLN Geothermal’s operations allegedly triggered the submersion of rice fields, contaminated the water, led to emergence of skin diseases, and subsidence inversion at surrounding residential areas.
“Similar disasters occurred in many places, but local resistance to geothermal mining projects was answered with intimidation and the deployment of state-corporate violence. In fact, it is not uncommon to see local residents forced to flee from their villages,” Alfarhat said.
