TUGAS BAHASA INGGRIS 1

Tugas pengganti Ujian Tengah Semester

Oleh
Brainnes Izaac Tubalawony
073001500026

PROGRAM STUDI SARJANA TEKNIK PERTAMBANGAN

FAKULTAS TEKNOLOGI KEBUMIAN DAN ENERGI
UNIVERSITAS TRISAKTI
2019
Coal miners on rampage
Editorial Board
The Jakarta Post

Jakarta / Fri, March 22, 2019 / 08:46 am

Heavy equipment is operated at a coal mine in East Kalimantan in this undated photograph.
(JP/Indra Harsaputra)

The government has again demonstrated how pathetic it has been in coping with the
environmental problems caused by abandoned coal-mine pits, which have increasingly become
death traps for children and polluted food crops with acidic water in Kalimantan.

Those huge black holes have even become an environmental time bomb because provincial and
regency administration leaders who often treat mining firms as cash cows for their political
interests seem reluctant to enforce the mining regulations on compulsory reclamation.

General mine director general Bambang Gatot told a meeting with the Commission VII on
energy, mineral resources, research and technology and environmental affairs of the House of
Representatives on Tuesday night that many coal mining firms, most of them small, had not
fulfilled their obligations to reclaim, revegetate and restore mining pits.
But the central government, through the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, could not do
much to address the problem because mining licenses have, since the enactment of the 2009
Mining Law, been put fully under the jurisdiction of provincial and regency administrations.

Gatot said the ministry had asked regional administrations to deal firmly with mining firms that
failed to fulfill their obligations, but many could still operate normally even though they did not
deposit their reclamation guarantee funds, as required by the 2009 Mining Law.

The commission painfully discovered during an inspection a few months ago how ignorant both
regional and national governments had been in enforcing the mining law’s provisions on
compulsory reclamation on mining companies.

The law requires mining companies to fill in and re-green mining sites and put up financial
guarantees for reclamation and restoration of mining sites. The guarantee funds would be used to
reclaim the mine pits abandoned by miners, but many companies that got their licenses without
putting up guarantee funds could simply abandon their mine pits and get away without paying
any penalties.

The Supreme Audit Agency and several environmental organizations had also confirmed earlier
through field studies that less than 50 percent of small mining firms did not complete
reclamation plans or had not put the specified guarantees in place. Worse still, many companies
have simply abandoned their mines either because of depleted reserves or because of the steady
fall in international coal prices.

However, the big question is: Is the government so truly incompetent or pathetic to be unable to
address the environmental damages caused by recalcitrant mining companies? Weak
enforcement of the regulations for compulsory reclamation by mining firms would only make the
environmental time bomb tick faster toward a devastating explosion.

But we reckon that even though mining concessions, except for oil and natural gas, are now
under the jurisdiction of regional administrations, the central government should still be
authorized to enforce the 2009 Mining Law and the Environment Law throughout the country.
Question and answer
1. Why The Government demonstrated how pathetic it has been with the environmental
problems caused by abandoned coal-mine pits?
 The Government demonstrated how pathetic it has been with the environmental
problems caused by abandoned coal-mine pits which have increasingly become
death traps for children and polluted food crops with acidic water.

2. Who is Bambang Gatot?

 Bambang Gatot is general mine director, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.

3. What the funciton of guarantee funds?

 The guarantee funds would be used to reclaim the mine pits abandoned by miners.

4. How the audit result of The Supreme Audit Agency and several environmental
organizations?
 The Supreme Audit Agency and several environmental organizations had also
confirmed earlier through field studies that less than 50 percent of small mining firms
did not complete reclamation plans or had not put the specified guarantees in place.