The Brantas River Crisis: The Sand Mining Problem and the Search for Solution

Abstract

This article examines the dynamics of power relations in the Brantas River sand mining and its influences on the fate of the most important river of East Java. By relying on archival sources, contemporary newspapers, and oral history interviews, it is argued that the Brantas river crisis occurred due to the acceleration of sand extractions facilitated by improved extraction technology in the form of mechanical and extracting machines and the growing emand for sand for infrastructure development. Automated sand mining caused damage

to

infrastructure and settlements in various places along the river from downstream areas that continue to creep upstream, as well as the loss of biodiversity richness. The search for a solution has been going on for some time but failed to stop mining and bring the Brantas River out of the crisis. The failure occurred not because of the absence of a legal protection, but the difficulty of implementing regulations in the field due to the involvement of unscrupulous

officials and politicians in the Brantas sand business, as well as the temptation of large and comfortable profits from mining that lured sand miners amid the limited available alternative sources of livelihood.