The sea lapping at the shore of Kurisa, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, has turned red. Located in the Morowali regency, this village is in the vicinity of the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP), a sprawling nickel processing hub.
The project, a joint venture between China’s Tsingshan Group and the Indonesian company Bintang Delapan (Eight Stars), hosts over 50 manufacturers. Their facilities produce nickel-based goods, including steel products and electric vehicle battery materials.
A Kurisa elder named Lukman, 54, describes to Dialogue Earth how hot, pungent waste flows from the IMIP to the sea, rendering it unfishable. He says this has cost the area’s fishers their livelihoods, and that they have been forced to scavenge for discarded plastic bottles as an alternative way to earn a living.
“Fish can no longer be cultivated here [in fish farms],” notes Lukman. He cultivated grouper until six years ago, after which he says the sea became more polluted. These days he runs a boarding house. Those who wish to go fishing must now sail around three kilometres further out, he notes.
Its polluted coast is just one of the issues facing Kurisa and several other villages surrounding the nickel complex. Villagers also live with air pollution from the coal plants that power the IMIP’s operations.
The government imposed sanctions on the IMIP for environmental violations. Months later, however, villagers and NGOs monitoring the situation say they have yet to see action being taken. The health and environmental impacts continue to affect and threaten local villagers and workers.
Health issues and risks to life
Nurman Hidayat, 42, is a villager of Bahomakmur, immediately to the west of the IMIP. He says locals have been afflicted by coughs, colds and fevers, which he attributes to emissions of sulphur dioxide and the burning of coal.
A 2024 study by the Association for Transformation of Justice (TuK) Indonesia and Tadulako University highlighted that the average concentrations of PM 10 and PM 2.5 – as well as sulphur dioxide in samples taken in 2023 – exceeded government standards for safety in three villages surrounding the IMIP, including Bahomakmur. The study described “serious health risks for local residents”.
What are PM 10 and PM 2.5?
Particulate matter refers to the mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air. Some particulate matter comes from natural processes, and it is also generated by human activities such as burning fuel and construction.
Some particulate matter can cause significant health problems for people, especially particles that are so small they can penetrate deep into the body when inhaled. Of particular concern are particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres, known as “PM 2.5”.
The study noted coughing and sneezing were symptoms present in over 70% of the study’s 91 survey respondents from the three villages.
The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), an environmental NGO, claimed in October 2024 that coal ash had been found in the classrooms of two schools in Labota, another Morowali village. They were several hundred metres away from the IMIP plants. Six students developed coughs and shortness of breath, it noted.
“The air here is really not suitable if we were to stay,” says Lukman.
Beyond air and water pollution issues, tailings waste management within the IMIP complex has also sparked criticism. The Free Land Foundation (YTM), an NGO based in Central Sulawesi, has highlighted various risks associated with the estimated 11.5 million tonnes of tailings generated by the IMIP annually. This figure is projected to grow more than fourfold by 2026 to 47 million tonnes, according to Indonesia Business Post.
YTM told Indonesia Business Post that the tailings contain harmful substances including sulphuric acid and hexavalent chromium. The latter chemical is known to cause cancer and respiratory illnesses.
The NGO warns that a collapse of any of the IMIP’s few tailings storage facilities – which are limited in comparison to the zone allocated for tailings management – might lead to toxic waste being released into the nearby Bahodopi River, “threatening both local ecosystems and nearby communities”. It highlights how intense flooding on 16 March caused a containment structure to burst, exposing nearly 1,100 people in Labota to the hazardous waste.
Just days later, on 22 March, high rainfall led the embankment at one of the tailings storage facilities in the IMIP to burst, killing three workers. YTM claimed this was due to the complex’s use of ground-level tailings storage facilities, which it noted as dangerous and risky in areas with high rainfall such as Morowali. Dedy Kurniawan is head of media relations for the company that runs the complex, the Tsingshan majority-owned PT IMIP. He told the Indonesian outlet Kompas that the landslide occurred due to hours of heavy rain, which caused the river to overflow into the complex.
YTM also raised the issue of future earthquakes potentially damaging these facilities and broader infrastructure. It highlighted how the region has experienced multiple significant earthquakes, including a magnitude 5.1 tremor in May 2024 that “damaged worker accommodations and company infrastructure”. The organisation raised concerns about the area’s disaster preparedness, considering that geological studies suggest a magnitude 7.4 quake last struck the Matano Fault – on which the IMIP lies – roughly 200 years ago. Research from 2023 indicated that a surface-rupturing earthquake on the fault is “already due”.
YTM’s director, Richard Labiro, tells Dialogue Earth: “When a natural disaster occurs, again [it’s] the community and workers who are affected.”
Left in the dark
According to Lukman, the local community reported their deteriorating living conditions to their Regional Representative Council (DPRD) in June 2025, as well as to the regional regent, Iksan Baharudin Abdul Rauf. Lukman says neither authority has followed up.
At one point, it appeared the government would be addressing locals’ concerns. In June, Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment announced it had found multiple environmental violations within the IMIP complex. These included air pollution and an estimated 12 million metric tonnes of illegal tailings deposits. Furthermore, 1,800 hectares of land not included in the company’s original environmental impact statement had been built upon and used for unauthorised activities.
The ministry announced it would impose administrative sanctions on PT IMIP. Reuters reported that the ministry said it would impose fines on PT IMIP, and the police were to investigate the management of hazardous and toxic tailings in the area. Rizal Irawan, the deputy for environmental law enforcement at the ministry, told Antara News that the ministry “will continue with criminal and civil legal proceedings” on these. He also said the ministry would order an environmental audit of the area.
However, months later, locals and monitoring NGOs say they have been left in the dark about the sanctions and their implementation.
“We don’t know anything, because there’s no follow-up,” says Lukman.
Similarly, Muhammad Taufik, the Southeast Sulawesi coordinator for the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), an Indonesian environmental monitoring group, says: “Regarding the alleged violations committed by PT IMIP in the field, we have not found any efforts to address them.”
There is no transparency regarding the sanctions and their implementation, says the legal analysis and assistance studies manager of Walhi’s Southeast Sulawesi chapter, Sandy Prasetya Makala. How the proceedings will take place remains unknown, and the public has not been provided with a way to monitor progress. “‘Transparent’ means not only releasing the results to the public after conducting monitoring, enforcement and investigation activities. It also involves the public in the monitoring process,” he argues, adding that the team conducting these activities must not be recruited solely from government ministries.
Makala says the public will only believe the government is serious about taking action on this situation if there is effective public monitoring.
Dialogue Earth reached out to Elyta Gawi, head of Morowali’s environmental agency, Irawan of the Environment Ministry, and Kurniawan of PT IMIP, for comments on any follow-up actions. Responses were not received.
However, responding to the government’s findings in June, Kurniawan said PT IMIP had submitted an environmental impact assessment report for the disputed 1,800 hectares of land in 2023. He added that the company and its tenants monitor air quality in real-time, and had installed technology to reduce emissions from smelting activities.
Potential costs to Indonesia’s nickel industry
Martha Mendrofa is a researcher at the Institute for Essential Services Reform, a think-tank. She urges the Indonesian government to establish a transparent digital system that allows the public to oversee legal acts that have been implemented by law enforcement, as well as to evaluate regulations and public complaints. She says follow-ups should be conducted by sanctioned companies – “this will ensure transparency regarding complaints and the responses of relevant stakeholders.”
Indonesia also needs to adopt stricter sustainability standards, like those set out in the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, Mendrofa adds. This will ensure that aspects such as waste management, worker health and safety, human rights, community engagement, anti-corruption measures and impacts on biodiversity are properly evaluated.
Mendrofa warns that if Indonesia’s nickel industry continues business as usual without higher sustainability standards, the country could face lower demand. “The global community will definitely not like it – they will not be interested in mining investments in Indonesia,” she believes.
Meanwhile, the residents of the nearby villages continue to suffer the health impacts of remaining in the area. Hidayat says: “No one from the relevant agencies [or] the health agency, including the central, regional, or provincial government, has considered [our concerns]. We’re asking for at least some attention to our health issues. There’s been absolutely nothing … nothing from PT IMIP either, so we’ve just been left alone.”
Lukman says if the company does not want to help them relocate, they should, at minimum, be providing the community with compensation, “so we know we receive something every month, even though we might be breathing in polluted air.”
