115 Tulungagung residents fall ill after consuming meatballs

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 04/07/2009 3:45 PM

At least 115 residents of Kates village in Tulungagung, East Java, suffered food poisoning after consuming meatballs on Sunday, tempointeraktif.com reported on Tuesday.

Ninety three of the victims, most of whom were school children, had received treatment at Kauman public health center, while 20 others were taken to Dr Iskak regional hospital. Another two had been taken to an Islamic hospital.

The incident was described as "abnormal" by Bahrudin, the head of the local Infectious Disease Prevention and Alleviation Agency (KLB).

Particularly since many snacks are being sold without supervision or even a permit to trade, Bahrudin said.

"From now on, we will educate food vendors about proper food hygiene," he said.

Police have detained a meatball seller named Agus for questioning. (amr)

Red Cross prepares 400 volunteers on Semeru eruption

The Jakarta Post | Fri, 03/13/2009 4:26 PM  

The Malang chapter of the Indonesian Red Cross has assembled 400 volunteers to participate in a team that is being prepared for an evacuation process on the possibility of the volcanic eruption of Mount Semeru. 

The volunteers are local residents in villages spread around the hills of the mountain such as the Poncokusumo village, Ampelgading, Dampit and Tortoyudo. 

A team has been made available by the Red Cross to train the volunteers on disaster management, evacuation methods, shelter management and simple medical treatments. 

“It will be them who will give the first aid to victims, while also engaging in disaster management and making daily reports,” said head of Red Cross disaster management team Muji Utomo on Friday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com. 

Utomo predicted that the Semeru eruption would not have a significant impact on those living in Malang regency because the stream of lava from the crater would not reach residential areas. 

“What we are concern of is the volcanic ash and the heat gas from the eruption,” he said. (and)
 

Study: Power plant causes illnesses

Agus Maryono, The Jakarta Post, Cilacap | Fri, 12/26/2008 11:20 AM  

More than 3,000 residents or 90 percent of people living around the Karangkandri coal-fired power plant (PLTU) in Kesugihan district, Cilacap regency, Central Java suffer from respiratory illnesses that can be attributed to dust pollution coming from a nearby power plant. 

Residents from three villages in the vicinity of the plant operator Cilacap PLTU should be held responsible for losses stemming from the health problems. 

"It's a serious problem. A survey conducted by a medical team from Greenpeace Southeast Asia shows the severity. We ask that the power plant operator take responsibility for it," Sugriyanto, chairman of People's Aspiration Committee, said Wednesday. 

Sugriyanto added that residents have been protesting over the pollution since last year, but their concerns have never been seriously addressed. 

He said the residents asked the power plant operator to acquire 5.5 hectares of land around the plant to be re-greened in an effort to balance the dust pollution. 

"We also demand the power plant operator relocate 300 households in the nearby Griya Kencana Permai housing complex, which suffered most from the pollution," he said. 

Residents have asked the power plant for compensation of Rp 360,000 (US$32.87) for each of the 700 households in the three villages. The money would be used to establish a cooperative and free medical check ups. 

Sugriyanto said the residents had repeatedly complained to several government agencies but had not got satisfactory responses. 

He said the residents had recently sent a letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono about the problem. 

"If we do not receive a response from the President, we will hold a massive rally to protest the power plant in the near future. We have been supported by Greenpeace and the Indonesian Forum for Environment," he said. 

Separately, the Cilacap steam power plant's technical manager, Sutikno, said the demand for the compensation would be hard to meet as it would increase the company's investment costs. 

"If we meet the demand, it will raise investment costs and, then, increase the price of the electricity," he told The Jakarta Post. 

"If it happened, people would suffer in a different way. So, it's not that easy to fulfill their demand." 

However, he promised that the operator would consider the matter further.

Floods lead to clean water shortages

Jon Afrizal, The Jakarta Post, Jambi

Residents are facing difficulties in obtaining clean water due to floods occurring in various regencies and cities in Jambi province over the past week.

They are unable to use their wells because they have been saturated by floods, forcing people to consume rain water or buy bottled water.

"We have to collect rain water to drink," said a resident in Seberang district in Jambi city, adding he is unsure how long he will keep doing so since the floods have shown no signs of receding.

Children are particularly at risk of being infected by various illnesses, such as skin and respiratory diseases.

Floods have engulfed residents' homes and schools, a number of which were forced to close temporarily.

Sulastri, a teacher at the SDN 104 state elementary school in Legok, Telanaipura district in Jambi city, said the school has been closed since Dec. 23. She said flooding reached the floor of the school even though it was built on a platform.

"Teachers let first and second graders stay home for fear the building might collapse, " said Sulastri.

Floods have also spread to other regencies, such as Muarojambi, Batanghari, Tebo and Bungo, besides Jambi city, inundating hundreds of homes and destroying crops.

The water level of the Batanghari River in Jambi city stood at 13.6 meters, only 27 cm from its highest level of 13.87 meters.

Husbandry agency bans goats from two provinces

Ary Hermawan, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

The Bali Husbandry Agency has announced a ban on goats from two provinces from entering the resort island to ensure anthrax and foot-and-mouth disease-free animals ahead of the Idul Adha day of sacrifice celebration Thursday.

The office said the two provinces, West Nusa Tenggara and West Java, were not free from anthrax and foot-and-mouth disease.

Demand for goats in Denpasar has increased over the past two weeks as Muslim residents prepare for the day of sacrifice.

"We are going to check the health of the animals. Should we find them infected with disease, we will destroy them," the agency's spokesperson, Frans Siung, said Monday.

Bali, the only Hindu-majority province in Indonesia, is currently one of the largest cow producers, supplying 75,000 cows across the country annually.

The province receives hundreds of goats from other islands on a monthly basis to meet local demand, especially from the capital city Denpasar, where a large number of Muslims reside.

As of the end of November, 7,610 goats had been transported to Bali.

"From November to mid December we received 1,080 goats," Frans said.

Bali's goat farmers are mostly found in the regencies of Tabanan, Karangasem and Jembrana.

Frans said his agency had coordinated with the police and quarantine authorities at the Gilimanuk and Padang Bai ports to supervise the traffic of animals.

Fishermen, he said, were also involved to prevent smuggling.

"We can't guarantee there will be no animal smuggling. The public in general should realize that illegally transported animals could be dangerous as their health is not checked," he said.

The smuggling of livestock is alleged to have caused the spread of bird flu, although there is no confirmation of this.

The Bali administration, however, has banned the entrance of live fowl to the province, allowing only chicks and chicken meat to enter.

The regulation, however, does not apply to other husbandry animals, Frans said.

Meanwhile, the central government has canceled the provincial regulation imposing fees on all animals entering the island.

Seasonal goat sellers in Bali are getting ready for the big sell; making temporary enclosures along Denpasar's streets and Muslim-populated villages.

"I have been selling goats for ten days," Firno, 50, said.

In the past six years, Firno, who usually works as a freelance laborer, has reaped the blessings of the day of sacrifice celebration by selling goats with his friends.

"The profit is not really that much, but it's good enough for us," he said.

"The price of one goat varies according to its size. The small ones are priced at Rp 750,000 (US$83) each, while the big ones can reach Rp 1.3 million. I have sold 50 goats so far. There are 90 goats left to be sold," he said, without elaborating whether his goats had passed a health check or not.

A large number of Muslim residents can be found in Denpasar and Kampung Islam (Muslim village), Kampung Bugis (the village of the Celebes people from Sulawesi) and Kampung Jawa (the village of the Javanese).

Most of the Muslims on Bali are descendants of Javanese Muslims who migrated to the island before independence. The rest are new migrants and Muslim professionals who came to the island after the tourism boom.

Muslims are prohibited from eating pork, a primary meat dish in Bali, while cows are sacred to Balinese Hindus.

"If anybody wants to start a business, they should look at the untapped goat market in Bali," Frans said.

Jungle school pushes danger message on mercury

Duncan Graham, Contributor The Jakarta Post, Palangkaraya, C. Kalimantan

Anyone wanting to learn about the environmental issues and impacts of mercury could refer to students at Bina Cita Utama (BCU) in Palangkaraya regency, Central Kalimantan.

And this is not just because staff at the province's first and only National Plus school have set assignments to research the damaging effects of the heavy metal; there's a pragmatic side also, for the school is in a province where mercury is a real threat, and factual information is sparse.

Alluvial miners, working in the Bornean mountains that feed the broad rivers in the area, still use mercury in large quantities to separate the gold from the sand by forming an amalgam. The used mercury is then dumped in the water.

So far, analysis of water from the nearby Rungan River has not given cause for real alarm, though swimming in the water and eating the carnivorous fish species that ingest and store the poison isn't recommended. But that is not the situation with other waterways.

The Rungan is relatively short; but bigger rivers nearby, like the Katingan and Kahayan, have high levels of mercury. The waters rise in the distant Muller and Schwaner Ranges, where gold is sought by hundreds of miners and their families, mainly from Java. A reported 240-square-kilometer expanse of native jungle has already been plundered.

Yadi Mihel, 40, lives on the Rungan riverbank near BCU with his three children.

"We know there is mercury in the river, but we don't know the percentage," he said.one has been here from the government to tell us. All I know is what I've read at the school, where I've seen warnings saying it can affect the brain and the skin."

The school walls are cluttered with posters produced by the students giving chapter and verse on the dangers of mercury. And as locals are free to come and go, the students' message about the hazards is becoming widely known.

Using resources provided by the Global Mercury Project, funded by the World Health Organization and relevant United Nations agencies, the students have learned that mercury used in mining is a problem with no easy solution.

The miners are poor and although they eventually get sick, they have no other work -- without the gold, they'd starve. At best, they make only Rp 100,000 (US$11) a day. If the use of mercury were made illegal, the processing would continue out of sight of government officials.

The BCU students agreed that the only practical solution appeared to be the creation of other work that paid better than panning for the precious metal. But what "other" work? Tourism is seen as one possible answer, but Central Kalimantan does not have an international airport.

The more the students looked at the issues, the more complex they became.

Bina Cita Utama -- which means nurturing noble ideals -- is an unusual school. It is based in a Subud community called Rungan Sari, about 35 kilometers northwest of provincial capital Palangkaraya. Kalteng, short for Kalimantan Tengah, is the local name for the province.

Subud was started in the 1920s by a Javanese Muslim seer, Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, and claims to be an awakening of the inner self; a spiritual movement and not a religion. People of all religions and no religions are said to be followers of the movement.

The name Subud has been distilled from the Sanskrit words susila (morality), budhi (reason) and dharma (duty). Subud followers define the name as "the possibility for human beings to follow the right way of living".

In most cities, supporters live in their own homes and get together at a center; but in Kalteng, they have built a well-resourced community on leased land in a jungle clearing.

Many homes are palatial, reflecting the affluence of those Subud followers who are professionals and businesspeople from overseas. Two houses have been converted into classrooms. Not surprisingly, the school has plenty of teaching and playing space, and good facilities.

BCU, which is associated with the U.S.-based education charity Susila Dharma International, started in July 2005 as a bilingual, multicultural school with 28 children from ages 5 to 16. Its student body has now expanded to almost 40 -- and most are Dayak, the indigenous inhabitants of Kalimantan. Dayak students live outside the Subud community and are bussed to the school. The plan is to increase enrollments to 200.

The school has only six students of foreign backgrounds -- five Australians and one Portuguese -- who live in the Subud community.

The National Plus concept was introduced to Indonesia in the late 1990s, and bridges the gap between national and international schools. Expatriate children are allowed to study at National Plus schools, where the teaching medium is often English and the students follow an international curriculum.

BCU is a fee-paying school that offers scholarships to Indonesian nationals and is open to the public. It is run by a nonprofit foundation and has two principals: Dr. Gunarjo S. Budi, a physics lecturer at Palangkaraya University who teaches mathematics and science at BCU, and Australian educator Karsten MacDonald, who carries the title "principal counterpart".

MacDonald said the local education system in Kalimantan was based on rote learning, with classes of up to 60 students. Primary school teaching hours lasted from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., and teachers were frequently absent. Corporal punishment was not unusual.

"A newspaper reported that 53 percent of students in Kalteng failed the national exams," he said. "The local government knew the system was failing, but weren't sure how to proceed."

MacDonald said Kalteng officials responded positively to the establishment of BCU.

"When they heard about the community here planning a National Plus school, they were highly supportive. They now believe that a school like BCU could become a model for others in the province," he said.

"We provide a learning environment which is non-threatening and high quality. At the same time, we maintain the integrity of the indigenous culture. All children learn the Indonesian language and culture, so they will not lose their cultural identity."

Diarrhea outbreak in North Jakarta kills 81

Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A clean water crisis is being blamed for a diarrhea outbreak in North Jakarta that has resulted in the death of a baby in Koja Hospital.

"Yes, the trend of diarrhea cases is increasing, particularly the numbers reporting to Koja Hospital, due to the lack of clean water," Jakarta Health Agency Deputy Director Salimar Salim said Saturday.

"The figure seems to be continuously rising."

She said the number of diarrhea patients in Koja Hospital had increased "tremendously" from 33 Thursday to 43 Friday, and 81 Saturday, with one seven-month infant passing away Friday.

The infant, who was suffering from severe dehydration, was brought "too late" to the hospital, she said.

In all parts of Jakarta, however, the total number of diarrhea cases decreased from 219 at the end of the first week of this month to 251 as of the second week, 177 as of the third week and 44 as of the past week, said health agency spokeswoman Feurah Dihan.

According to Salimar, most patients being treated are from Rawa Badak and Lagoa subdistricts in Koja district, and Tanjung Priok subdistrict in Tanjung Priok district.

"We have deployed our officers to the subdistricts since Friday to find the contaminated wells," she said.

She said the agency's officers would chlorinate the wells to prevent further increases in the number of diarrhea cases.

Earlier, Jakarta City Secretary Ritola Tasmaya said that the outbreak "must have been caused by lack of clean water".

"Residents in those areas have limited access to clean water," he said.

At least 31 subdistricts in the capital have been suffering from a clean water crisis since last Tuesday, with 29 of the subdistricts located in North Jakarta.

Mike Fordham, production and distribution director of water firm PT Thames PAM Jaya (TPJ), said that fire damage to the company's machinery had caused a disruption in supply.

Ritola said the administration had ordered Jakarta's two water firms, TPJ and PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja), to provide clean water to North Jakarta residents.

He said the companies were bound to do so under the contracts with the administration.

"They have 15 tanker trucks to transport water," he stressed.

He said that TPJ and Palyja would store water in the water tanks the residents had used during the February 2007 floods.