Jayapura (ANTARA News) - Waste materials from gold, silver and other kinds of mining activity in Papua New Guinea (PNG) are believed to have polluted the water in several rivers flowing toward the sea in Merauke District and other parts of Indonesia`s Papua province, a local human rights activist said.
The waste materials were believed to have been produced by the mining operations of a PNG-US-Australian joint venture in the Oc Tedi River in PNG, Frits B Ramanday, head of the economic, social and cultural section of the Papua branch of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said here Wednesday.
Tailngs from the mining activity in PNG were disposed of in the Fly river whose downstream part flowed through Merauke district, he said.
People in Merauke district had complained about skin problems and often found dead fishes in the Fly river giving rise to the suspicion that the river water was polluted by mercury, he said.
Ramanday said mining, building construction and illegal logging activities in Papua were now beginning to create various problems, including environmental ones.
Affected people had often reported such problems to Komnas HAM`s Papua branch office but the commission could not handle them well due to lack of data and supporting facts.
The commission, he added, was planning to hold a seminar to get more clarifications on environmental problems caused by mining and other developmental activities.
"We want to build a strong network with our partners here to prevent local people from being victimized by such activities," he added.
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