April 15th, 2018. Willie Smits
It is now almost two weeks after the big fire and the huge oil spill in the Bay of Balikpapan. In the local newspapers half the news concerns the aftermath of the oil spill. The state oil company Pertamina is now dealing with the repercussions they face after admitting it was their pipeline that burst and led to the deaths and environmental disaster. Together with the city council of Balikpapan they are making inventories of the various damages that resulted from the oil spill.
The impact on the mangroves is clearly visible, especially for the younger trees that got most of their leaves covered with oil. Dozens of people are involved in pulling out the thousands of dead young trees because there is the suspicion that the oil on them contains dangerous chemicals. Pertamina is collecting these dead trees and promised to replant the same number of trees. They have also distributed special tissues to wipe off the oil from many other affected mangrove trees in an attempt to save them. These extra large pore tissues are also used to wipe off the foundations of the houses build above the water in the Bay of Balikpapan.
Although the water is now clearing up significantly I could still see the many oil slicks on the water coming into Balikpapan by plane. The government has warned residents to still avoid all swimming in the affected waters. The crabs have started digging new holes again after initially all surfacing and sea worms show more activity. But the people that live from finding worms to be used as bait say that they are still covered with some oil and that the fish will not bite when they are used as bait so their income has been severely impacted and so it has been for the 165 fishermen identified so far as having lost fishing nets in the fire, damaged boats, and simply not being able to go out to fish in the oil slicks. The bill is likely to be very high for Pertamina.
On Saturday I went to check on the mangroves around our Arsari reforestation project in the Bay of Balikpapan and did not find any evidence of damage that might be related to the oil spill. Let’s hope there are no other pipelines that shift 120 meters underwater to lead to more spills and that real lessons are learned from this disaster. As a positive aspect, I was pleased to notice that everyone now talks about the importance of the mangrove ecosystem in the Bay of Balikpapan such as for protection of the coast and for the fishery sector. I hope people will remember…
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