Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq acknowledged significant changes in the landscape following floods and landslides in Sumatra, including areas near hydroelectric power plants and gold mines.
“I have instructed the Deputy for Environmental Management to contact university colleagues in North Sumatra, West Sumatra, and Aceh to immediately conduct a study,” Nurofiq said in Jakarta on Monday.
KLH already has cooperation agreements with several universities in the region. The academic study will complement the ministry’s ongoing review of environmental approvals granted to companies operating in disaster-hit areas.
Although responsibility for environmental approval documents is shared between KLH and local governments, Nurofiq stressed that a thorough evaluation will be carried out.
“We will reanalyse the environmental approval. We will scale up based on the calibrations provided by nature today. If it fails, we will terminate the environmental approval and recommend to the technical ministers to change to other environmentally friendly activities,” he explained.
According to the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), the death toll from floods and landslides in the three provinces had reached 604 as of Monday afternoon, December 1.
President Prabowo Subianto inspected the affected areas on Monday, while the government has also launched weather modification operations in Sumatra to reduce rainfall and mitigate further disaster risks.
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Translator: Prisca Triferna Violleta, Cindy Frishanti Octavia
Editor: Aditya Eko Sigit Wicaksono
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