February flood left polluted soil in East, North Jakarta: Study

Adianto P Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Although the use of lead in fuel was stopped last year, lead contamination in city soil hit dangerous levels in the aftermath of the February floods, a survey has revealed.

The survey, carried out by the State Ministry for the Environment, showed the lead level in soil at industrial areas in Pulo Gadung, East Jakarta reached 359.5 milligrams per kilogram after the floods, far higher than tolerable standard of 100 mg/kg.

"That's a very dangerous level because it will pollute the sources of ground water in surrounding areas," I Ketut Muliartha, the deputy assistant for the recovery of environmental quality at the environment ministry, said Thursday.

He said deposits of lead in soil were toxic to both humans and animals.

For humans, lead poisoning can cause birth defects and damage brain cells, marrow, kidneys and other vital organs, particularly in children.

"We think the lead pollution is from metal processing plants in the area or paint from buildings that had been absorbed into the soil," he said.

Lead was widely used in paint in the past.

He said the finding had been handed over to the management of the Pulo Gadung industrial area for them to follow up.

Dozens of industrial areas in Greater Jakarta were severely hit by the February floods.

The ministry survey also took samples of floodwater at a hospital in Kepala Gading and at Pertamina's fuel depot in Plumpang, both in North Jakarta.

The survey found metal pollutants surrounding the hospital and the Pertamina depot were relatively low.

"But the level of micro organisms in the flood water around the hospital was relatively high, reaching 98,000 to 157,000 per milliliter," he said.

The oil content found to have leaked into the water at the Pertamina depot was relatively low at 828 mg/kg.

"We wanted to make sure the depot hadn't leaked and polluted nearby areas during the floods," he said.

The February flood was the largest flood in five years, inundating around 70% of the city and causing severe economic losses.

Many industries were forced to close their operations by the high water level.

Ketut said some industries, which had yet to set up waste water processing plants, might have used the flood as an opportunity to illegally dump their waste.

The Jakarta administration has admitted that many businesses operating in the capital are not equipped with waste water processing plants.

Ketut said the results of the survey could not be used to draw conclusions about the state of all the city's soil.

"But it is warning call (for the whole city) because the soil is seriously polluted. So companies also have to be serious about treating their hazardous waste by improving their waste water processing plants," he said.

The ministry currently handles 15 areas polluted by hazardous waste across the archipelago. Most sites had been contaminated by the activities of mining, oil and gas companies.

Ketut said his office recovered 12 hectares of contaminated land last year.

Meanwhile, Budi Haryanto from health department at the University of Indonesia was surprised with the finding.

"The government must trace the source of the lead soon to avoid it polluting ground water in the area. It's dangerous for the human health," he told the Post.

Half of the Jakarta's approximately 10 million people currently rely on ground water for drinking. Groundwater has long had problems with contamination with E-coli bacteria.

Environmentalists in Jakarta had urged the government to stop using lead in gasoline produced by state-oil and gas company Pertamina since 2001.

Budi, who has conducted surveys on lead, said children were the most susceptible to poisoning.

His survey found the lead content in the blood samples of Jakarta elementary schools students dropped from 8.6 microns per milliliter to 4.2 microns when the phase out of lead was introduced. The tolerable lead in human blood is 10 microns per milliliter.