Waste 'did not breach' laws
S'pore, Indonesia end compost dispute
by Sharon Vasoo, Today Online
13 May 2005 – A 10-month bilateral dispute over a shipload of compost between Singapore and Indonesia was resolved yesterday with Indonesia agreeing that Singapore had operated legally and had not shipped materials which were considered "hazardous" under international regulations. Soil tests carried out by an independent body found the composite of the materials acceptable within standards set by the Basel Convention and Singapore.
The Geneva-based Basel Convention's Secretariat (SBC) yesterday said that Singapore acted in accordance with its laws and that the export of the material on July 27 last year did not breach the convention.
These points were made in a joint statement released last night by both countries.
At the heart of the dispute is 1,149 tonnes of compost exported by a Singapore company to Batam last July.
Indonesian authorities accused Singapore of allowing the company to dump the materials which they claimed was hazardous waste. Singapore argued it was not classified waste but compost used as a soil conditioner and fertiliser.
The matter was politicised in the Indonesian media and showed signs of escalating into a diplomatic row in March when some 20 Indonesian demonstrators spray-painted graffiti on the Singapore embassy gates in Jakarta.
The issue was referred to the SBC in January this year after Indonesian authorities pressed for the materials to be shipped back to Singapore.
Both delegations finally met on Tuesday and Wednesday under the auspices of the Basel Convention.
The Convention's Secretariat said that Indonesia's Environment Ministry only sent a list of hazardous waste to it on July 29 last year, two days after the material was exported from Singapore. Singapore, it noted, only got the notification from the Convention on August 27.
This meant that at the time of export from Singapore on July 27, Indonesia had not notified the Basel Convention Secretariat and other state parties that it considered the exported material as hazardous waste.
Yesterday, the two sides recognised the need to move forward for the sake of bilateral relations.
The statement said Singapore would allow for the return of the compost in the interest of "resolving this issue amicably and in the spirit of good neighbourliness".
Both parties will expedite the return of the materials within a week. To do so, Singapore will lift earlier prohibitions imposed on the return of the materials, the statement added. This means the return of the material to Singapore is not regarded as a re-export under the Convention's articles.
To avoid similar incidents in the future, both Singapore and Indonesia agreed yesterday to work closely under the Indonesia-Singapore Joint Working Group on the Environment, which was set up in 2002 to strengthen bilateral environmental cooperation.
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