Workshop Improofing Water Quality

Dear participants of the workshop,

from the Lake Toba Heritage Foundation (YPDT) we research since 3 years specially for the companies, they pollute the Lake Toba.

We fully support the results, the consultants from Deltares found out. We just want to highlight this result in the Presentation of Deltares:

All the fish farms at Lake Toba give the same Phosphate pollution to the lake than an impact of 2.300.000 people!

Daily Phosphates loads to Lake Toba

This means that the PT. Aquafarm Nusantara (PTAN), now owned by a Singaporean share based company, they produce 40.000 tons of fish a year, pollute the water in the same way, than nearly one million people with the production of their fish. We researched especially about this company. For us this is the most worse. The others like Japfa will not be (much) better! But Regal Springs already make around 40 % of the pollution from fish farms and nearly 30 % of all the pollution of Phosphates to the lake.

For what this fish of PTAN is getting produced?

Fish food is produced on the base of Cargill´s GMO soy from America and Brazil, treated with Monsanto´s Roundup, enriched with 0,5 – 2 % Phosphates, than transported to the lake and each day they feed 200 tons of this dirt to the lake. The fish is than getting harvested and transported with trucks alive for 6 hours to Medan, where it is getting processed and nearly all is getting exported. Around 80 % to America again. No food for Indonesia, only the dirt stay in the Lake!

Our Opinion about the Aqua farms

When we look at the scenario, what we can generate with your Excel Software Tool (DELTARES), than it is getting clear, that only ZERO-Production in open Cages can be possible. This is the standard of all open lakes in developed countries like US, Canada, Europe. There it is by law not possible to pollute the lakes by fish farms, they use pellets. Very easy. And this should be the standard also in Indonesia.

We want all fish farms out. If it is PTAN or JAPFA or others. All need to go. Today we just post on an US Web page this post, what we also publish on Facebook. Here we just go for the US-Tilapia and this is produced by PTAN:
“I live at Lake Toba in Sumatra in Indonesia. In front of our house there the Tilapia is getting grown for Regal Springs (www.regalsprings.com). They write they produce without hormones and ASC certified sustainable fish. They produce in one year there 40.000 metric tons of Tilapia where the most is sold in the US as an ASC certified Tilapia. A huge amount from the fish food is GMO-soy from Cargill treated with Monsanto´Roundup. Researches from Deltares.nl found out for the World Bank, that only this company pollutes the wonderful Lake Toba with the excrement of the fish in the same way than nearly 1 Million people. The whole load of the phosphates only of the fish farms, where the Regalsprings are 40 %, is around 80 %. The people living there only give a load of less then 7 %. The company use the Methyltestosteron (MH17) to transgender the fish. In the ASC Certification you can read, that they give the hormon/anabolica soup then to the rice fields.

A fish production for the ASC Standards is not possible in the US or Canada. Also no European Country will allow to give 200 tons of this GMO food to a lake. But with help of the WWF and the ASC you can do this in poor countries to destroy the wonderful nature there. Also in Indonesia a lot of people are against this and we are quite sure, the operation of Regal Springs is only possible with corruption. We have the testimonials, that Regalsprings tried several times to give corruption money. But only the people talk, they don´t take it. At the beginning of the year the Regent of Samosir in Lake Toba signed the contract for the Aquafarm again until 2029. Even he know, that he could not sign this because of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN, they are also signed by Indonesia. After 2020 a fish farm with open ponds and pellet food is not possible by international law.

But we don´t want to wait, until the lake die. Already last year the ph go up to 9,63. Than the water of the 1000 square kilometer huge lake was manipulated with hundrets of tons of Polyaluminiumclorides (PAC). We accused them now with the Lake Toba Heritage Foundation (YPDT) by the police and the judge.

It is for the Lake Toba totally important, that the lake is an oligothrophic water. This is only possible without the Aquafarms. Then Lake Toba, the biggest volcanic lake of the world can be a Class One Destination for a sustainable tourism. This we want to develop. Please help us and don´t eat ASC-certified Tilapia anymore.

Tilapia wonderful can be produced in Florida with Aquaponic systems. The food and the fish don´t need to be transported. This will be also much cheaper and the waste water of the fish is a perfect nutrition for vegetables. And especially the fish don´t need to be transported for around 10 hours first on a boat and than alive on a truck on the bad roads from Lake Toba to Medan, where they are killed. The fish will produce a lot of Cortisol, a stress hormone, which also should can cause cancer.

To produce the US Tilapia in Lake Toba in our view cannot make more profit, than to produce it in the US with Aquaponic Systems. In our view this only make sense if the company work with fake invoices and tax declarations. If they don´t pay tax, than it make sense and it also can generate nice black money. We gave this thoughts to the Consul of America and also to the Indonesian Authorities. They have to look for this.

Save Lake Toba and come as a tourist, your Phosphates in the waste water in 20 days will be the same to our lake, than you buy 1 kg of Regal Springs Tilapia Filets in the US. And we will work on it, to make better water treatments. But for the first we need your help, that you don´t buy the Regal Springs Tilapia anymore!

Welcome to Lake Toba!”

Where is the benefit for Indonesia?

People from the Government told us, that the Samosir Regency not even get 1 Billion rupiah Tax from PTAN. In the ASC-Audits you can read, that there several time have been irregularities to pay tax and to bargain around, how much tax they have to pay. The Indonesian Government has to look, how much this company payed in total for tax. This we cannot research.

The other argument against to close the Aquafarms at once are the employees. They need an income. Lets look at this. There are the around 3500 workers of PTAN. The most of them just get the minimum Salary of 1,961,354 IDR. This are in one month 6,8 Billion. In one year this are 82 Billion.

If the government now close the Aquafarm at once, than the Government can overtake this 3500 people for one year as a worst case Scenario. (But we have the opinion, that the Aquafarms have to pay there damage to the lake, they have to go at once and have to be punished! This need to be cleared at the judge. Already this process runs by Initiative of the Yayasan Pencinta Danau Toba (YPDT))

Even the worst case scenario will be the cheapest for the Government. The Government can give also each worker the half of an annual salary at once under the condition, that they start an own Business to prepare the Lake Toba Area for Eco Tourism. After 6 month they can get the other half, if they really do it. Also the workers can built Cooperatives, than the Cooperative get the money.

A lot of things are to do, to prepare Lake Toba for an Eco Tourism destination. For a plan like this, also the Money from the World Bank can be used. All the new companies can work under the roof of the BODT.

Activities they can be done for example for:

  • Building sustainable driven boats, like Solar Boats, Sailing boats, rowing boats, Windsurfing boards

  • Use the not used land around lake Toba to plant: Sugar palms up the mountains, planting vegetables and fruits, coffee, herbs and spices and create a direct marketing for the products

  • Rebuilt all the hiking trails around Lake Toba.

  • Collect all the waste around Lake Toba and sell it to a company, she want to buy it and recycle all. (Hans-Jochen Heusler from Bayern International, a company of the Bavarian Ministery of Economy gave us the idea to look for Comapnies they recycle all the waste. Just make a bidding to the companies around the world they can do it and look for the best offer. Then the people can organize, how to transport the waste there and sell it.

  • Create own products to sell them and to marketing them. The tourists will come now very soon. In September the Airport of Silangit is international with flights from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Next year already there will be flights from Guangzhou. Than Mumbai will come and from there you have the direct connection to Europe, Arab Countries and America. It needs to prepare now and who starts now, will be in front and will take place. Therefore it is nice, to start now with this. One year time for the people, they want to do. It needs a center for Entrepreneurship. Can be done everywhere around Lake Toba. It just need a starting place for this. This can be for the beginning just a not really frequented hotel. In the main season, than it is getting used as a hotel again. For Example Vanessa Beach Hotel can be a place like this. Everybody, who want to create something, can go there in the morning and take place for one day, for one week, for some month. I myself I am Trainer for Visioncoaching and I trained around 2500 Coaches in this. Also we can start this in Silimalombu. For 100.000 IDR a day we can offer this including food and place to sleep for everybody. Already I organized this for hundreds of people at the same time in Germany. I was famous for this. And to develop lake Toba, I can give my experience to help.

  • Norbert Kehl, a German Consultant, with whom we work together since 6 years and he brought the delegation from Bayern International to Lake Toba already brought up the idea together with the BODT to make Tourist Competence Center (TCC). Also he is on the way to prepare an Exchange of knowledge together with the Technical University of Munich and with the very successful Tourism development and marketing of Bavaria. There all the rivers and lakes are clean, that you can drink nearly everywhere directly the water. 40 years ago, also the lakes and rivers have been dirty there. Just look for best practice!

  • To go around with Water cleaning of domestic water, which is only 7 % of the pollution of Lake water and with rest of the Life Stock, there we developed already an idea and tested this in Silimalombu:

    Making a wall of stones in front of the villages or towns

    Here you see the fish pool with the water Hyazinth. On the wall can be a walking path. A simple way for a third step of water cleaning.

      • This walls at the one side are fishpools and create fish, which are not necessary to feed. They grow in 4 years to really healthy fish and the people can fish or harvest them.

      • The people can invest themselves in the wall and then they can sell a license for fishing from the pool or from the lake.

      • The pool is filled up to 50 % with Eceng Gondok (Water Hyazinths) to clean the water. Eceng Gondok can take out of the water up to 100 % of phosphates and nitrates in between of 24 hours

      • For the normal toilets around Lake Toba this will be the third step of a biological water treatment system.

        • First step are the “septic tanks”, the most people already have. This are down under open concrete pools. The rest water and the nutrients still go with around 20 % to the environment.

        • Second step: Around the lake all the water will go in direction to the lake. The soil will filter out another percentage, depends how far the tank is away from the lake

        • The third step than are the fish pools with the Water Hyacinth. This will take again a lot of Nutrients out. Important is that around 50 % is covered with the Water Hyacinth and this plant is getting harvested each few month, when the sticks are huge and can be used for weaving. Also the fish should not be extensively fed. To give them some waste from the kitchen will not have a real bad impact, if it is not to much.

      • at the other side this are walking or bicycle trails for people or tourists.

      • All the not really useful drains, they are getting built around the lake also can go first to basin, with two steps to get first out all the heavy stuff of the water. This can be transported back on the fields as an organic fertilizer. Also the transport and the distribution on the fields of the phosphate rich soil and sediments from the drain can be a business model. And it is the reverse function of the erosion of the drains. The rest is then going to the fish-pools.

      • A system like this is the most easy handle able water cleaning system, which fits to the structure of Lake Toba.

        • Often there are heavy rains, to built basins to take all this capacity of the water, it is very difficult to built and the density of nutrition is not high enough anymore to start a biological cleaning. All the microorganism will be washed out.

        • With the fish pools there is a huge capacity to take the water from the rain. Also the fish pools cleaning the water from the lake. We got in our fish pool 1 point less ph than the lake has. Through the stones and the underground there is still an Exchange of the water.

        • There is no tech, there is nothing to maintenance, where you need specialists. If a wall is getting broken, everybody see it and will repair it, because the people want to have the fish and the people walking around. You can look at the experience what happened the last years, when the Government bought Equipment for water treating systems, that they are not getting really used and only were waste of money. Look at presentation of Deltares:

    • Now lets look at the costs of this. The walls can be made by the locals, they want to use the fish pools and the water hyacinth and they want to sell the fishing licenses. Already the fishing licenses are a nice Business. In Silimalombu the people just pay for sitting on the wall for fishing outside in the Lake 25.000 Rp. Also all the workers of the Aquafarm can help, when the Government overtake them. Then in one year this kind of water Cleaning system is done. Sustainable with no operational costs for the future. The salary of the Aquafarm workers is around 82 Billion for one year. Let the stones maybe another 200 Billion.

      • We think, here the workers of the Aquafarm can do a lot of things. This will be much cheaper to close the Aquafarms now and use the workers for cleaning the lake instead to let them pollute the lake further on with around 10 times the amount of Waste loads of Phosphates and Nitrates with can taken out with Waste water treatments by an investment of 5,5 trillion in 4 years.

        With the waste water treatment with the investment of 5,5 Trillion for four years only can be cleaned the 7 % domestic waste water load. The 80 % waste load of the Aquafarms will be than 11 times 5,5 Trillion, this will be than 60,5 Trillion or 4,54 Billion USD. This the Fish Farms give to the Lake and if they want to go on for 4 years, they have to pay this damage to the Indonesian Government. Or?

      • We have and we want that is taken care of all the employees of the Aquafarms. Also this are good working teams and they can make much more nice things, than to carry fish bags and go around with the chemical blown up Tilapia! We want to invite them to create the heaven around Lake Toba and that they can earn more money, than they earn today! But we have to try to get the money from the Aquafarms for their (illegal?) pollution. Already the judge in Medan started working on it! The BODT maybe just can send a letter to declare, that the Aquafarms have to pay for the water pollution, starting at the 1. 1. 2018, based on an Indonesian law.

  • We just think, this argument has to wake up all participants now.

    THE AQUAFARMS HAVE TO BE CLOSED ALL UNTIL THE 31.12.2017

    No new fish inside of the pools starting from the moment!

    Government wake up and account the damage they make!

    We will not get any Investment of the World bank, if this pollution of the Aqua farms goes on!

    More money the Government cannot save, even the Government say: OK we will pay you the profit for the next 4 years. We are quite sure, this amount will be ridiculous, if you look at the damage or the investment for a senseless waste water treatment, when you can take out for the 5,5 trillion only 25 % of the loads and the aqua farms give every day the triple amount of Phosphates and nitrates to the lake.

    Some more backgrounds for the Water Manipulation of Lake Toba and activities around PT. Aquafarm Nusantara:

    • We took place in the stakeholder Participation for the ASC-Certification in February 2017. There the former Bupati of Samosir Wilmar E. Simanjorang spoke about that PTAN several times tried to give him corruption money. Also the former Worker of the Aquafarm Larry Hutapea spoke about the Manipulation of the water with Chemicals. We record the whole Audit. Larry spoke starting at 1:58 h. Here the link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B95wtt_R19nqMkI0VmtqV250MmM#

    • With the YPDT we made a watertesting to get also the testimonial for the Manipulation with the Polyaluminiumchloride (PAC). The results show the effect of this Chemicals. You find a lot of Chloride, and Ferrum (with Fe all the PAC´s are polluted) and a deficit of oxigan which also is a result from this chemicals. The first time we measured that the lake was manipulated was in May 2016. The ph of the lake went down from 9,63 to 5,5. This fully corespondents with the graphic of PTAN.

    • Here you can download the results from the water testing by Sucofindo from November 2016: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B95wtt_R19nqaVBxZVhicHJjYjQ

      How the Aquafarm goes around with around 70 tons of dead fish, and much more about PTAN you can read from our letter to the ASC certifying company.

  • To the letter and some more “nice pictures” you come with the link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B95wtt_R19nqekVuRWpZa1VtYjQ

    The Lifestocks

    The hugest company, who give an impact to the lake is Allgrindo. They produce pigs in a huge scale. Nearly all of the pollution is going directly to the lake. For the Government it should be an easy thing, to make the polluters pay for the pollution. The Government has to pay for it now to clean and with this all the people around Lake Toba or all around of Indonesia have to pay for the profit of this company. How this can be by the law of Indonesia? I don´t understand this! If somebody make dirt, he has to clean and pay for it! Very simple principle, or?

    How I can tell children, not to give waste to the nature, if for the huge companies it is allowed to give thousands of ton of shit to the water, the people want to drink?

    For what Indonesia has a Government, if they don´t care of their inhabitants? This is the main task, and even they made a mistake, they have to correct it NOW! Say to Allgrindo:

    • You cannot give any pollution to Lake Toba after the 31.12.2017!

    • collect your waste of puh and pie until this time. You can sell it as a fertilizer to the farmers around Kabanjahe or Berastagi.

    • Work on it, if you don´t do it, then we charge you for each ton the amount we have to invest to make water Cleanings for domestic waste water.

    • We think, you can find cheaper Solutions

    • Even you have a license, but you have to pay for your impact.

    • This is like a strong Government is working

    • Do it and quit all the other addictions!

    With this kind of Argumentation another huge part of the pollution will be eliminated.

    Reforestation

    All the mountains around Lake Toba getting burned and burned again. There are nearly now trees anymore. Already there is a lot of landslides and also the filtration of the water is not nice anymore. Through the huge deforestation especially from the company Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL) already the micro climate changed. The rainy seasons are much shorter and much less in the last years. This is an effect of the huge deforestation. You can look at the map down under, that you understand this. There are only 10 % of the environment in a natural status. This need to changed again.

    All the hills are not getting used. But everywhere can be planted Sugar Palms. The Sugar Palms are very good to strengthen the soil and everything of the tree can be used and there is a world wide market for the products of the palm.

    The Palmwine, the people drink around lake Toba is the healthiest way to drink alcohol. 3 glases a day protect from cancer. It turns the body from a sour to an alkaline system. It has milk acid bacterial and has a lot of Antioxidants. And even around Samosir there is even now not enough of this Sugar Juice. The worldwide potential of this Palm wine is enormous. Here is a huge Business possible and then the rain will come back. The wood of the trees is very strong. And the hair of the tree is getting used for the traditional roof. This will have a Renaissance in a few years, because in a house with this roof of the palm fiber it is much cooler at daytime and warmer in the night.

    We already developed concepts to go for the marketing of the Palm tree reforestation. International organizations want to invest in this, but also this can be a local life insurance for the Batak people. Just the small example: somebody plant 20 trees and take care of them for 10 years. Than around 5 trees give every day around 10 liter of palm wine. 50 liter of palmwine are today 500.000 Rupiah. In one month 15 million. If he give now 10 % to the land owner, 10 % to the person, who take it and another 10 percent to the people, they took care of his trees than he still has 70 % of it. Even he has only 10 million, he is a rich person, and he has this now for the next 50 years. This just need to be organized.

    Out of this we can develop a Life insurance or Pension fond for Batak people. Just plant 20 trees and take care, that the trees grow up and you don´t have to work anymore if you are old. Just start 10 years before. Everybody can start with this himselve on his own. But also this can be an offer for investors and the people around Lake Toba can do the work for it and have already now a salary from it. The BODT maybe can organize this.

    When you plant the Sugar Palms, still you can grow a lot of other things in between, which give very fast an income. It just need to be done. And for everything you need people, they can do it. But if the people work for foreign huge Companies like Regalsprings, Toba Pulp Industry, JAPFA and others for a minimum Salary than they don´t have the time to and the power anymore to create a real Income.

    Ongoing process

    And we have much more ideas in our network. We like to sit together to develop a roadmap for Lake Toba. Also we can organize a workshop, to bring all the ideas together, they exist until now from all the people, they want to participate.

    What would be also a nice tool to develop the roadmap is the Blockchain Technology. With this it is an open software tool for development. More for this theme you find in www.ethereum.org. I think that academica DEL can setup the tool for us to work for it.

    In the next weeks we will put our concept ideas for Lake Toba together. We already prepared much more, like Cable Car systems or High Speed Solar Shuttle around lake Toba and a lot of Business Ideas. We will send it to you, when we are finished it.

    Let the people around Toba understand, that the heaven is already here and we just have to protect it, clean it. Then we can develop it.

    Thomas Heinle (YPDT Samosir)

    Ratnauli Gultom (YPDT Samosir)

    Vera Situmorang (YPDT Tobasa)

    Sebastian Hutabarat (YPDT Tobasa)

    Silimalombu, 3.9.2017