All 40-meter deep wells are polluted by domestic waste

JAKARTA (JP): The city's mine and energy agency has asked Jakartans not to drink water straight from wells as most 40-meter deep wells in the city are polluted.

The head of the agency, Arifin Akbar, said over the weekend that the well water has been contaminated by domestic waste, resulting from residents' poor awareness of the proper construction of septic tanks.

He cited the wells in densely-populated neighborhoods where the residents do not have enough space to build septic tanks at an ideal distance from wells as being a particular problem.

Ideally, a septic tank should be built at least ten meters from a well.

"Some houses even have no septic tanks at all and dump their waste straight into the rivers," he said.

Research by the Japan International Cooperation Agency in 1991 found that 73% of water taken from 30 wells in North Jakarta and Central Jakarta was contaminated by human excrement from septic tanks.

The pollution has been taking place for more than a decade. And the city administration has found it difficult to deal with the problem, which is lingering in line with the increase in population.

Officials and researchers have warned residents many times of the contaminated well-water, but research on the residents who have consumed such polluted water for years has yet to be made public.

The fact that the city-owned tap water company PAM Jaya has not been able to serve all residents with clean water exacerbates the situation. "The use of groundwater cannot be avoided, therefore," Arifin said.

According to official data, only 45 percent of Jakartans are served by the city-owned water company, PAM Jaya. 7.5 percent are using artesian wells, which are more than 40 meters deep, and the remaining 47.5 percent are using shallow wells, which are 40 meters or less in depth.

"This means almost half of Jakarta's residents are consuming the shallow-well water. They should be extra careful by boiling the water before consuming it," he said.

Since the quality of water from shallow wells is deteriorating, many people now prefer using artesian wells. This has, however, caused another serious environmental problem, especially in groundwater preservation.

In an effort to control the exploitation of groundwater,the city administration charges higher fees from owners of artesian wells.

The high fees have been able to decrease the use of groundwater from 2.8 million cubic meters a month in February to 1.9 million cubic meters in March.

According to data provided by the mine and energy agency there are 2,871 artesian wells in Jakarta and it sealed 150 wells last year.

Artesian wells are any wells which are between 40 and 250 meters in depth.

Appeals to residents to build water catchment wells is another of the administration's steps to preserve groundwater.

As many as 459 catchment wells have been built throughout the city and each can absorb 1.4 cubic meters of water per hour.

"We have also built an injection well in Kapuk Kamal to preserve the groundwater. The well can contain 200 cubic meters of water per day," he said. Unlike water catchment wells which hold rain water, artesian wells receive water, taken by people through tanks, from the river. (yns)