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Balikpapan, East Kalimantan. Rivers in East Kalimantan are threatened by the growing coal mining industry, an environmental activist warned on Monday.

The Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), an NGO in the province, said 27 branch rivers have disappeared, either buried or diverted in the interest of the coal mining industry. As a result, major rivers such as Mahakam river have been polluted, and local residents have increasingly lost natural freshwater sources.

“Mining activities have many impacts,” said Jatam coordinator Kahar Al Bahri. “Our records show 27 tributaries of main rivers are now gone because of mining interests. Water quality is degrading and ultimately that reduces food production.”

Kahar also said mining excavations have left large holes that in the last two years have caused accidents killing at least 13 people in Kutai Kartanegara and Samarinda districts.

Excavation sites abandoned by 57 mining firms in Samarinda had 100 bore holes measuring 1,200 hectares, while 213 companies in Kutai Kartanegara left 32 holes measuring 836 hectares.

“Nearly all mining firms in East Kalimantan failed to do proper land restorations after their excavations, which poses a danger since the holes are located near residential areas in Kutai Kartanegara and Samarinda,” Kahar said.

Mining companies avoided reclamation projects to cover the holes, he said, because land restoration can be expensive. To make matters worse, authorities only have a few inspectors to supervise 1,271 mining firms in the province.

“Even if some companies agreed to do the reclamation, it only covered 5 percent of the damaged areas,” Kahar said. “A major firm like KPC [Kaltim Prima Coal], which has exploited 5,000 hectares of land for mining, only restored a tiny area of 300 hectares.”

According to Jatam, mining licenses in the province cover a total of 5.6 million hectares. The 30 companies with licenses from Jakarta control 1.3 million hectares, while companies with licenses from local governments occupy the rest of the land.

Meanwhile, the provincial government has claimed that land restoration has reached 80 percent of the mining sites and that a moratorium on mining licenses has been imposed.

“We can only encourage mayors and district heads to ensure the moratorium on mining licenses is implemented properly,” said Riza Indra Riadi, head of the provincial environment office.