Indonesia records low environmental quality index
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Indonesian Environment Affairs Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said on Monday that the country recorded considerably low environmental quality index at a score of 59.79 due to low water quality in Java and Kalimantan islands.
"The water qualities in Java and Kalimantan ranked the lowest from the rest of islands across the country. Water qualities in those islands have exacerbated the national environmental quality index," the minister told a press conference in his office here.
He blamed the intensifying housing and building constructions in the densely- populated island of Java and the production process in many coal mining and plantations in Kalimantan as factors that highly contributing to the worsening water quality.
Water quality is the essential factor in environmental quality index assessment.
Responding to such a low index score, the minister said that environmental affairs ministry and related institutions in the regions would intensify the implementation of the Law No. 32/2009 that aims to save the environment's supporting power, including to save the water quality.
"With the implementation of the law, the officials in the related institutions will scrutinize proposals to construct buildings or projects. Unless they comply with the procedures and standards stipulated in the law, they cannot get the permission to build their construction projects," the minister said.
In a bid to improve the national environmental index score, the minister said that his ministry would conduct strategic environmental study on large islands across the country, including in Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua.
"The study is intended to assess the feasibility of infrastructure and large projects in those islands, avoiding them from exacerbating the environment's supporting power in those islands," he said.
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