This is an extended version of the eight categories of the Basic Human Dignity Needs Holistic Index, with over 600 sub-categories.
Basic Human Dignity Needs include:
ENVIRONMENT - Int'l Pollution Cases
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Pollution in Indonesia is reaching catastrophic levels, says the World Bank
25 June 2003
By Lely T. Djuhari, Associated Press
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Acid rain, hazardous industrial and fecal waste being dumped unchecked, and other pollutants are having an alarming impact on
Indonesia's environment and people, the World Bank said Tuesday.
Indonesians are paying "a high price in human health and environmental degradation," the World Bank said in its first environmental report on Indonesia.
One-third of children are at risk of serious damage to their brains, lungs, and digestive systems from lead poisoning because most vehicles still use leaded
fuels, the Indonesia Environment Monitor 2003 report said.
Indonesia has the highest number of typhoid cases in Asia and has been plagued by repeated epidemics of gastrointestinal infections, amid high levels of
pollution in drinking water, it said.
More than 90 percent of household and industrial garbage is discarded in largely uncontrolled dumps, with toxic material seeping into the groundwater.
Rivers and canals are clogged with rubbish, polluting the water that many Indonesians drink. Fecal contamination is rampant as human waste is disposed
directly into waterways.
Choking smoke from annual forest fires, mainly on Sumatra and Borneo islands, has caused respiratory problems in hundreds of thousands of people.
Garbage is often burned, adding to air pollution.
Pollution levels are "so badly neglected in Indonesia that it is affecting the health and lives of all people here," said Tom Walton, an environmental adviser at
the World Bank in Jakarta. "A lack of political will to enforce environmental law, entrenched corruption, and lack of understanding in pollution management
are blocking efforts to overcome the problems."
The government denied it lacked the commitment to improve the environment.
"Political will is not like an Aladdin's lamp: You rub it and everything improves," said Environment Minister Nabiel Makarim.
He said the 1997 Asian financial economic crisis was partly to blame for the country's poor environment. "At the height of the crisis, the number of factories
and power plants decreased but what was left were the worst polluters," he said.
The World Bank pointed to the banning of leaded gasoline in the national capital, Jakarta, by mid-2001 as a success in curbing pollution. But it said the
nationwide lead-phasing-out deadline of January was not met, and polluting fuels were not expected to be eradicated until 2005.
Acid rain is on the rise, destroying crops, especially in Java and Sumatra islands, where factories and power plants are concentrated.
Toxic waste from mining, including mercury-laced soil, is often discarded in rivers and the sea, killing marine life. Forty percent of the country's sprawling
coral reefs are "seriously damaged" because of excessive fishing and pollution, it said.
Source: Associated Press
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