Minimizing pressure on forests for cleaner, cheaper water<\/p>\n
Fitrian Ardiansyah
\nand Israr A
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
During the past two months, many areas throughout the country
\nhave faced the ever-worsening seasonal water crisis. Drought has
\nbrought misery to many and clean water is still a luxury for some
\npeople.<\/p>\n
In big cities, people have had difficulty obtaining adequate
\nsupplies of fresh water. Many farmers could not harvest their
\ncrops because they could not irrigate them sufficiently. Cities
\nin Sumatra have also experienced electricity shortages due to
\nlack of water for hydro-power plants, while some areas in
\nKalimantan have become isolated because decreasing river levels
\naffect river transportation. Meanwhile, people throughout the
\narchipelago suffer from flooding and landslides every rainy
\nseason.<\/p>\n
However, while many continue to suffer from water shortages, a
\ncollaborative action -- between NGO activists in Lombok Island,
\nthe local water enterprise (PDAM) of Menang and the West Lombok
\nregency and Mataram municipality administrations shows there is a
\nsolution to this resource problem.<\/p>\n
After a survey that found the island's water users were
\nwilling to protect water sources, these stakeholders have been
\ndesigning schemes to link water users with Mount Rinjani
\nlandscape conservation.<\/p>\n
With the support of local people, government officials and
\nactivists the protection of catchment areas could eventually
\nprovide eight important water sources for the urban areas on the
\nisland. These areas were originally only protected by forestry
\nofficials.<\/p>\n
This effort in Lombok to implement a "payment for
\nenvironmental services" is similar to what happened in Melbourne,
\na good example of how to provide sustainable urban water.<\/p>\n
Well-known as "Smellbourne" in the 18th century due to its
\npoor water quality, Melbourne officials ensured the protection
\nand restoration of the city's mountainous forest in the north and
\neast. To date, the city obtains 90 percent of its drinking water
\nsupply from these areas, with the highest quality water of any
\nAustralian city.<\/p>\n
It has proven that implementing forest catchment area
\nmanagement is cheaper than building a water treatment plant:
\nSaving upper-catchment forests is the best way to have cheap and
\nclean water.<\/p>\n
Last year, the World Bank and World Wildlife Fund released a
\nreport entitled Running Pure showing one-third of 105 big cities,
\nincluding New York, Tokyo, Barcelona and Melbourne, obtained much
\nof their water through protected forests. It explained that
\npreserving forests -- which reduce landslides, erosion and
\nsediment, improve water purity, and store water -- is a cost-
\neffective way of providing clean drinking water.<\/p>\n
David Cassells, a World Bank environmental specialist, said
\nprotecting forest water catchment areas was no longer a luxury
\nbut a necessity. The costs of providing clean and safe drinking
\nwater to urban areas, said Cassels, would increase dramatically
\nif forests disappeared.<\/p>\n
However, managing these forests should not only be the
\nresponsibilities of forest-dependent people, he said.<\/p>\n
At the moment, the water supply imbalance in Indonesia has
\ncaused problems and hardship.<\/p>\n
Although it has 10 percent of the world's remaining tropical
\nforests, the annual deforestation rate -- through destructive
\nlogging and forest conversion to pulp wood, agriculture (oil palm
\nand other commodities), mining, fires, human settlements and
\nother infrastructure -- reaching up to 3.8 million hectares
\nannually, has left Indonesia ever-fewer natural resources and
\ncaused significant environmental damage, including the loss of
\nforest functions to regulate water.<\/p>\n
The degradation results in loss of high conservation values
\n(including biodiversity), soil erosion, water pollution,
\nincreasingly dramatic fluctuations between water shortages and
\nflooding, siltation, health problems, reduced potential for
\ntourism and loss of income and employment, particularly for
\nforest-dependent people.<\/p>\n
Looking at the criteria from the Ministry of Forestry and the
\nMinistry of Settlements and Regional Infrastructure, a growing
\nnumber of catchment areas can now be considered as critical,
\nincluding Asahan (North Sumatra), Cisadane and Ciliwung
\n(Banten\/West Java\/Jakarta).<\/p>\n
This degradation is likely to inflate the numbers of people
\nwho will lack access to clean water for drinking and other
\ndomestic use. At the moment, about 77 million Indonesian people
\n(about one-third of the population) do not have access to clean
\nwater and only depend on self-provisioning systems (i.e. 50
\npercent of urban households and most rural households are served
\nby wells or small-water supply systems).<\/p>\n
With dramatic disturbance to water supply and quality, people
\nthroughout the archipelago may have to continue living in poverty
\nwhile suffering from limited availability of water -- which many
\ncountries consider a basic human right.<\/p>\n
The government needs to develop good and participative spatial
\nplanning taking into account landscape and ecosystem integration,
\nand making sure the planning is enforced. The restoration scheme
\nof the catchment areas needs to link end water users -- including
\nindustries and PLN\/electricity companies.<\/p>\n
The private sectors, including logging, plantation, mining,
\nreal estate companies, situated in the catchment areas should
\nactively participate in catchment management by implementing
\nbetter practices covering protecting, maintaining and
\nrehabilitating high conservation-value forests within their
\nconcessions and put efforts to ensure their protection and
\nmaintenance.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the awareness about the interconnection between
\ncities and catchment areas needs to be increased in Indonesia,
\nespecially in local governments that are now -- in the era of
\ndecentralization -- seemingly thinking that one can exist without
\nthe other.<\/p>\n
It's time for water users to start actively conserving the
\nforests. If a local initiative in Lombok becomes a success story
\nof how water catchment areas can increase the supply of fresh
\nwater, will cities like Jakarta and others follow?<\/p>\n
Fitrian Ardiansyah is a program coordinator for World Wide
\nFund For Nature (WWF) Indonesia, while Israr A. is a staff at
\nIndonesia Forest and Media Campaign (INFORM).<\/p>",
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