Cheap coal, cheap workers, Chinese money: Indonesia’s nickel success comes at a price

Upin collects scrap metal from the ocean floor. Since factories opened next to his home in Morowali, fish are no longer abundant and he has had to find other ways to make a living. Photograph: Per Elinder Liljas

Standing chest-deep in the Molucca Sea, just outside the billowing smokestacks of the world’s largest nickel industry, Upin adjusts his mask and dives. Members of his people, the Bajau, have been known to stay underwater for more than 10 minutes but Upin resurfaces shortly. He hauls a rugged disc of metal over the side of his dugout canoe.

“Since the factories arrived, there has barely been any fish to catch,” he says and grimaces towards the opaque water.