Jakarta, 15 February The journey of the most potentially affected people of Dairi in North Sumatra by PT Dairi Prima Mineral (DPM)’s mining to defend their living space is still long. Previously, the representatives of the Dairi people held an audience with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), on Wednesday (24/8) to prevent them from granting PT DPM, a lead and zinc mining company, with an environmental approval to advance their activity exploring the bowels of the earth using their underground mining system.

Despite this, however, the KLHK remained in their position to issue the Decision/SK of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Number: 854/MENLHK/SETJEN/PLA.4/8/2022 on Environmental Approval or “ Environmental Feasibility for Lead and Zinc Mining Activities of PT DPM Dairi Prima Mineral in Silima Pungga-Pungga Sub-district, Dairi Regency, North Sumatra Province, on Thursday (11/8). Meanwhile, the Dairi people learned about the issuance of this environmental approval after receiving an invitation from the Dairi Regency Government to attend a meeting for this SK socialization, on Friday (18/11). “The decision made by KLHK to issue the environmental approval for PT DPM hurts us deeply. We can hardly understand how would the Minister grant the company approval at the stake of our lives. Learning what the government did today, we, as the people of Dairi, feel cheated by the government’s inclination to taking sides with the company. Even though the approval has now been issued, we ask for it to be repealed. It is unacceptable that this mining will operate in our farming areas, where we have grown our plants for generations and which we depend our lives on,” said Rainin Purba.

The people of Dairi are strongly against the presence of PT DPM in their areas for fear that once the company operates, they will invite disasters. This concern is validated in the map of disaster-prone areas, where Dairi Regency is shown to occupy red zones that marked as “DISASTER PRONE”. The Head of the Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), Dairi Regency, added, the Dairi Regency has long held the “DISASTER SHOPPING CENTER” status due to the many kinds of disasters that have happened in the past and which remain an absolute threat throughout time. It’s never been our intention to scare people off with this, but it’s an undeniable fact that Dairi Regency is located above three fault lines, they are Toru, Renun, Angkola faults.

“We had the flash flood in our village, Bongkaras, in December 2018, that took seven lives, and two were missing until now. Recently, we are having frequent experiences of short earthquakes for a fraction of a second, that gave us constant fear and sleepless nights,” said Barisman Hasugian.
An international hydrology expert, Steve Emerman, and a dam expert, Richard Meehan, who studied DPM mining in Dairi, stated that the proposed mining plan is not suitable, with the proposed location being in the upstream village, on unstable soils, and in the highest earthquake incident area, it unarguably will invite disasters in the future.

In agreement with the opinions of both experts, in June 2022, the World Bank’s Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) issued a report based on the Dairi people’s complaints in last October 2019. In the CAO’s report, it is mentioned that the proposed mine by PT DPM have high risks combination due to a number of factors. One of them is the fact that the development of the waste dam that the company proposed does not comply with the international standards. The experts’ studies and CAO report can be accessed in https://bakumsu.or.id/advokasi-tambang/.

Despite the many letters the Dairi people have sent to the KLHK requesting copies of the environmental approval and the EIA Addendum the KLHK has issued, even conducting a press conference, they never receive any of these documents. In addition to writing letters to KLHK, at the moment the community has filed a complaint, reporting the KLHK to the Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia (ORI) for maladministration, and it has been received and is at report verification stage at the moment. This community’s struggle is also received supports from Civil Society Organizations (CSO) at national level, including JATAMNAS, Trend Asia, Bersihkan Indonesia, Sajogyo Institute, dan JKLPK Indonesia with Joint Secretariat Against Mining, to press on the KLHK to immediately cancel DPM’s environmental approval.

Respectfully,
The People of Dairi, whose safety are at risk.
1. Barisman Hasugian (0821-2304-0620)
2. Rainim Purba (0821-5303-6473)