The Dutch Sites Affected by Mining

By Rusmanadi

Kotabaru , South Kalimantan ( Antaranews ) - Historic sites abandoned by the Dutch in the village of Gunung Batu Besar, Subdistrict Sampanahan, Kotabaru District, were now damaged by coal mining activity.

Secretary of Subdistrict Head (Sekcam), Rahmansyah, in Gunung Batu Besar said on Monday that the sites included in the area of coal mining. "A lot of Dutch heritage destroyed by coal mining activity," he said .

Between the 18th -19th century, the Dutch built area of ​​large scale coal mining in Gunung Batu Besar and named it as the Gunung Batu Besar Bay.

The site was very crowded at that time and visited by many people from other countries , until it famous with a nickname "Little Singapore ".

According to him , this time the remaining from the Dutch heritage site just a building and a water reservoirs.

But the building was not completed when it was left abandoned and for a long time overgrown with shrubs and trees. Only in the incumbent subdistrict head's tenure the building now refunctioned.

" The building is now used as a gymnasium by residents and water reservoirs used according to its function , " he said.

He added, as the industrial and large scale mining built by the Dutch , there were many relics as railroads , ports and lorries and mining hallways. "The tracks and hundreds of lorries were made ​​of depleted iron taken up by the public to be sold in kilograms, " he added .

While the halls of the former mining has destroyed and razed bybulldozers owned by coal mining company.

The district does not have the power to ban coal mining companies for not doing the destruction of historical sites, 

because there are no instructions or orders from the local government.