REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, TANGERANG -- The Tangerang Environment Agency has imposed sanctions on 418 companies in Tangerang District, Banten Province for environmental offences from 2014 to 2018, a local government official said.

Four of the 418 industries had even been brought to court for their alleged liquid waste that harmed the environment, Head of the Tangerang District Office for Controlling Pollution and Environmental Degradation Budi Khumaeri said in Tangerang on Thursday.

"The law enforcement is part of our firm stance," he said, adding that several enterprises which received the legal sanctions had even stopped operating, due to various causes, including polluting the environment.

Several of the sanctioned companies had no liquid waste permits and garbage dumps and failed to maintain their chimneys, thus polluting the air, Khumaeri said.

Throughout the district, there are 5,081 companies. Every year, around 200 to 300 companies are under surveillance in response to public requests, and to ensure that their waste management runs smoothly and they have permits, he said.

"We examine the quality of water. If we find it polluted, we impose sanctions on the companies," he said.

In improving the quality of the environment, the Tangerang District Government has planned to increase the number of biopores and wells for absorbing rainwater, and also to replant mangroves.

An article written by Thomas Wright, a PhD student of Australia's University of Queensland, dated 5/9/2017, in The Conversation, revealed Indonesia was recorded as one of the world's main contributors to marine plastic pollution.

Due to its polluted rivers and streams, Indonesia reportedly throws some 200 thousand tons of plastic into the ocean every year (Wright, 2017). In addressing this problem, the Indonesian Government has formulated a national action plan, which has five main pillars: behavior change; suppressing land-based pollution; suppressing sea-based pollution; suppressing plastic production and use; and improving financing mechanisms, policy reform, and law enforcement.

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