Historically, Indonesia’s government has tended to blame water pollution on the dumping of domestic waste, rather than disclose information about industrial waste pollution. This is despite the fact that, on numerous occasions, the authorities have admitted that industrial toxic chemicals and hazardous wastes pose a much more serious long-term threat to human health. Greenpeace International’s investigations in 2012 revealed the dumping of various hazardous chemicals and wastewater with a pH 14 reading into the Citarum River near Jakarta. These findings were confirmed by the company under investigation, which said: “What was conveyed by Greenpeace was true, our waste contains nonyphenol (NP), nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE) and tributyl phospate (TBP).” However, unlike in other regions, such as the EU, where these substances are banned or heavily restricted, NP, NPE and TBP are not regulated in Indonesia.
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