Fishermen in Bangka Island urged Maritime and Fisheries Affairs Minister Susi Pudjiastuti to take action against the increasing tin mining activity in Bangka Belitung waters.
The demand was delivered by thousands of fishermen who conducted a demonstration rejecting tin mining activity in front of the Bankga Belitung Governor office on Tuesday, December 29, 2015. The fishermen urged Minister Susi to bomb tin mining ship.
“Today, fishermen are the poorest people in Bangka Belitung. Rampaging offshore tin mining activities have been detrimental to fishermen. The government needs to take action to save fishermen,” said Roaidi, one of the fishermen from Simpang Teritip Village, West Bangka Regency in front of the Bangka Belitung Mayor office on Tuesday, December 29, 2015.
Roaidi said that fishermen’s yield had been drastically reduced because they have to sail far away to fish. At the same time, they also suffered from expensive operational costs.
Syamsu Budiman, coordinator of Aksi Nelayan said that fishermen will continue to reject all form offshore tin mining activities regardless of the compensation promised by tin companies. Syamsu asserted that the compensation cannot be compared to the damages that will be suffered by the fishermen in the long-term. In addition to damaging the sea econsystem, Syamsu said that tin mining activity will also resulted in coral bleaching.
“Every day, tin mining ship generates 2,700 meter cubic of sedimentation waste. If there are 50 ships, it means there are 49.5 million [meter cubic] of sedimentation waste covering coral reefs,” Syamsu said. TEMPO