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WORLD✒ EDITORIALABSURDITY:
Indonesia’s geothermal push runs into local fears at Mount Ungaran
Filed 1h ago · Via Mongabay · The Buffoon Desk
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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0
Photo: Tonmoy054 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Communities near Mount Ungaran in Central Java are opposing a revived geothermal project after Indonesia's energy ministry authorized state utility PLN in August to begin exploration on the active volcano, reviving a dispute dating to 2008.
Residents fear the project, targeting 55 megawatts and commercial power by 2031, could pollute or deplete water sources they depend on for farming, and worry drilling as deep as 2,200 meters could increase earthquake risk near a site that includes a 1,300-year-old Hindu temple complex.
Officials say the project is still in an exploration phase requiring technical, environmental and safety approvals, and the provincial government has offered to facilitate dialogue, while noting the licensing decision itself rests with the central government.
The full dispatch is available from the source below.
✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK
Indonesia sits on a mountain of energy potential and keeps reaching for it with the same shovel that's dug up trouble before, at Sorik Marapi, at Dieng, now here. Officials keep promising studies and dialogue, which is what you say when you don't yet have an answer for the people whose well water is on the line. A temple that's stood for 1,300 years has outlasted a lot of five-year plans; it might outlast this one too.
