"The clean-up of the spilled coal was reportedly funded by a coal mining company," Maimun, the head of Meureubo Subdistrict, West Aceh District, informed when contacted on Monday afternoon.
However, he added that the sub-district has not received official reports from the village heads (keuchik) regarding the coal spill.
Earlier, Rian, 24, a resident of Peunaga Pasi Village, said that he managed to gather 59 sacks of coal from the local coastline.
"In the past three days, I have managed to gather 59 sacks of coal, and I don't know how many sacks I have collected today," he added.
Rian informed that the coal mining company will pay Rp25 thousand per sack for the coal collected by him and the community.
He added that coal spills have occurred frequently along the coast of the village, and the community has often been involved in collecting spilled coal on payment by the coal mining company.
Meanwhile, Bukhari, head of the Environment and Sanitation Service of West Aceh District, who was contacted by ANTARA for comment, had yet to provide any information regarding the repeated coal spill incidents on the coast of Meureubo Subdistrict, at the time of filing of this report.
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Translator: Teuku Dedi Iskandar, Aditya Eko Sigit Wicaksono
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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