The Law Enforcement Investigation Team of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry named four suspects in the case of illegal electronic waste burning, which is suspected to be one of the main causes of environmental damage and air pollution in Tangerang, Banten.
“The four suspects are MA (39), HI (48), S (50), and MK (40). The four suspects are currently being detained at the Salemba class 1 detention centre, Central Jakarta,” said the Director General Law Enforcement of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Ridho Sani Ratio, at a press conference in Jakarta, Monday 21st of August 2023
Ratio explained that the suspects’ MA, S and MK were the company’s capital owners. At the same time, HI played the incinerator of electronic waste in Tegal Angus Village, Teluknaga District, Tangerang Regency, Banten.
“The suspect was charged with Articles 98, 103 and 104 of Law Number 32 of 2009 concerning the Protection and Management of the Environment in conjunction with Article 55 of the Criminal Code with the threat of imprisonment for a maximum of 10 years and a fine of up to IDR 10 billion,” continued Ratio.
Ratio also said that his party had assigned six teams to eight company locations suspected of carrying out environmental pollution, which was one of the causes of worsening air pollution in Jakarta. “Today we assigned six of our teams; we will go to eight locations in Jakarta, then Bogor, then Bekasi, also the border between Bekasi and Karawang,” he said.
Ratio explained that the current focus of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry is to look at emission sources that have the potential to cause air pollution problems in Jakarta.
“We continue to carry out checks and supervision at locations with Steam Power Plants. Several industries have their generators, both the paper and cement industries. We will continue to carry out periodic checks,” said Ratio.
“We are also checking the location of the coal stockpile because this industry also has great potential to contribute to air pollution, which is increasingly difficult to overcome. Not only the industrial waste itself, but if there are strong winds, dust from the coal stockpile location can cause fine dust, which is very dangerous for human breathing. In several locations we are also checking the scope of Jakarta and several locations around metal, steel smelting locations and so on. In this checking effort, we also investigate several locations that burn waste openly,” added Ratio.
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