VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta (voinews): The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) reiterated its commitment to improving water quality by controlling the pollution load from waste entering rivers in Indonesia.

Director General of Pollution and Environmental Damage Control of KLHK Sigit Reliantoro stated that the ministry continues to develop collaboration with all stakeholders to jointly improve water quality through various concrete actions and programs.

"The activities carried out are the construction of facilities and infrastructure," Reliantoro noted in a statement in Jakarta, Thursday.

KLHK also encourages local governments to improve water quality through the Regional Performance Response Index (IRKD) as an assessment of local government performance in improving water quality.

IRKD is an indicator that describes the local government's response to the achievement of the target of the Environmental Quality Index (IKLH) in Indonesia.

In 2022, the IKLH achievement was recorded at 72.42 points from the target of 69.22 points set by the National Medium Term Development Plan, thereby indicating an increase of 0.97 points from the previous year.

Specifically for the Water Quality Index (IKA), the figures have increased, as the number of districts and cities that recorded an increase in the index reached 192 (4,884 monitoring points), while a decrease in index was recorded in 157 districts and cities (3,881 monitoring points).

The increase in IKA in 192 regencies and cities was due to the availability of budgets for the implementation of activities, such as the supervision of industry and guidance for small-scale businesses.

In addition to encouraging local government involvement, the KLHK involves the community through river care communities to implement programs to improve river water quality, such as conducting river patrols and routine cleaning activities as well as scavenging garbage in rivers and around the banks.

Moreover, industrial development is necessitated to be more adherent to regulations through the Corporate Performance Rating Program (PROPER) mechanism.

So far, KLHK has carried out various good practices for improving water quality in Indonesia starting from installing real-time and online water quality monitoring tools (ONLIMO) in Indonesian rivers as an early warning system.

The other steps encompass waste-water treatment through domestic waste-water treatment plants (WWTP), small-scale business WWTP, biodigester, and use of river equivalents with ecoriparian development.

Ecoriparian is a concept that utilizes the equivalent of a river that was originally used as a garbage disposal siteand build pollutant load reduction facilities, such as a domestic WWTP, community empowerment facilities, and an environmental education tourism spot as well as green open spaces.

Various regulations aim to improve water quality in Indonesia, including those related to water pollution control in the form of Government Regulation Number 22 of 2021 concerning the implementation of environmental protection and management that regulates the protection and management of water quality.

Moreover, Regulation of the Minister of Environment and Forestry Number 5 of 2021 pertains to procedures for issuing technical approvals and letters of operational feasibility in the field of environmental pollution control.

This regulation regulates the procedures and requirements for business actors, who will discharge waste-water into water bodies and utilize waste-water in the environment.

"Ministerial regulations govern the quality standards for disposing of waste-water into water bodies," Reliantoro concluded. (Antaranews)

Jakarta (voinews): The General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) of Papua province has invited people living with disabilities to participate in supervising the implementation of the 2024 General Elections so that they can be conducted fair and square.

A member of Papua provincial Bawaslu Anugrah Pata told ANTARA here on Thursday that his party is intensively carrying out dissemination in a number of areas to encourage the community to participate in monitoring the general elections.

"On Monday (March 20, 2023), we disseminated the implementation of the participatory election supervision to persons with disabilities in Jayapura city, so that they can find out how far the progress (of the implementation of election stages),” he noted.

He said that according to Article 5 of Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections, people living with disabilities have the same voting rights as non-disabled people as long as they meet the requirements.

Persons living with disabilities also have the right to become participants (prospective legislative members or executive leaders) or the organizers of the general elections, the Bawaslu member added

“Hence, we are striving to assure and inspire (people living with disabilities) to be involved in every stage of the election process," he stated.

It is expected that the Bawaslu’s attempts can improve the confidence of people living with disabilities to participate in determining the future leaders of the country, he added.

"We want this group (persons with disabilities) to not feel inferior and ashamed to use their rights (as voters) to know about the progress of every stage of the general elections,” Pata said.

Through this dissemination, his party also hopes to encourage people with disabilities to take part in preventing potential election violations.

"If persons with disabilities can be confident and enthusiastic to be actively involved in overseeing every progress of (election) stage, certainly their voting rights can be accommodated properly” he added.

The general elections are scheduled to take place on February 14, 2024. The most recent stage of the general elections carried out by the General Election Commission (KPU) was voters’ personal data verification, which was held from February 12 to March 14, 2023. (Antaranews)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un does not appear poised to carry out a nuclear test during U.S.-South Korea military exercises, but the United States is staying vigilant, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency said on Wednesday.

U.S. officials have warned for nearly a year that North Korea may resume nuclear testing for the first time since 2017, a move that would be seen as a serious provocation by the United States, South Korea and Japan.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and other officials warned of that possibility in May 2022 ahead of President Joe Biden's trip to Asia.

"I have been waiting for that as well," Lieutenant General Scott Berrier told reporters at DIA headquarters. "There are a bunch of different factors that play into (Kim's) decision calculus on that. And there are a bunch of things that we watch in terms of indications and warning. Those two haven't aligned."

Berrier said Kim could have opted to time a nuclear test to coincide with the ongoing Freedom Shield drills by the U.S. and South Korean militaries. The 11-day exercise is set to conclude on Thursday.

"It doesn't look like he's going to do that," Berrier said. "But he will uncork that at a time and place of his choosing, which is something we'll be watching for very, very carefully."

'MUCH MORE DANGEROUS'

North Korea has long been banned from nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches by the Security Council, which has strengthened sanctions on Pyongyang over the years to cut off funding for those programs.

In recent years the 15-member body has been split on how to deal with North Korea. Although both Russia and China backed toughened sanctions after North Korea's last nuclear test, in May 2022 they vetoed a U.S.-led push to impose more U.N. sanctions over North Korea's renewed ballistic missile launches.

North Korea conducted an unprecedented number of such launches last year, including intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the U.S. mainland.

That testing continues. North Korea fired several cruise missiles off its east coast on Wednesday, three days after firing a short-range ballistic missile into the sea.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Wednesday's launches could have involved strategic cruise missiles.

"Strategic" is typically used to describe weapons that have a nuclear capability. North Korea's last known firing of strategic cruise missiles was on March 12, when it said it fired two from a submarine.

Asked about the flurry of testing by North Korea, Berrier said he believed Kim was still not satisfied with his deterrent, despite the advances in his military programs in recent years.

"He continues to pursue greater accuracy and lethality with his with his missile force," Berrier said.

He noted that North Korea's conventional ground forces "have atrophied over time" as Kim has advanced his nuclear weapons and missile programs.

"But I think it is a much more dangerous North Korea than it has been in the past," Berrier said. (Reuters)

Singapore's key consumer price gauge rose 5.5% in February, unchanged from January and lower than forecast, official data showed on Thursday, though while analysts said core inflation appeared to have peaked, prices remained at historic highs.

February's core inflation rate - which excludes private road transport and accommodation costs - compared with a forecast in a Reuters poll of economists for a 5.8% increase in February.

Lower prices for services were broadly offset in the core inflation data by higher prices for retail, as well as other goods and utilities, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in a statement.

However, the inflation rate in February is still at the same level as in January, which was the fastest pace seen since November, 2008.

MAS has said core inflation was likely to stay at about 5% for the early part of 2023.

It has also projected a core inflation rate of between 3.5% to 4.5% in 2023, with headline inflation coming in at between 5.5% and 6.5%.

Headline inflation was up 6.3% year-on-year in February, compared with a forecast 6.45% increase in a Reuters poll.

While analysts said inflation in February was below their forecasts, there were divisions over the implications for a monetary policy review MAS will conduct in April.

"The inflation may appear high on year-on-year basis, but it has started to moderate more than expected in the past few months," said MUFG analyst Jeff Ng, who expects no changes to MAS monetary policy in April.

Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ, said even though core inflation had peaked and should start to edge lower in coming months, MAS would still need to tighten policy in April.

"Inflation is still very high, well above the historical average...MAS will need to tighten further to ensure that inflation expectations remain well anchored," he said.

The MAS tightened its monetary policy four times last year, including in two surprise moves. (Reuters)