Chairman queries water decree

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration's plan to strengthen a regulation on water catchment wells will not be effective if city officials fail to uphold it, a councilor says.

The chairman of the City Council's Commission D for development affairs, Bandjar Marpaung, said yesterday that the effort was good but would not work if officials were not serious about supervising the implementation of the decree and enforcing it.

On Thursday, Prawoto S. Danoemihardjo, an assistant to the city secretary, said the administration planned to convert a gubernatorial decree which obliges public and private building owners to construct water catchment wells into a provincial decree.

The plan was proposed because the administration considers the gubernatorial decree, issued in 1992, fails to compel people to build catchment wells.

Bandjar said that weak supervision can be seen by the fact that only 1,000 out of 16,766 people applying for building permits in the city had built catchment wells.

Based on the gubernatorial decree, a building permit requires that all houses must have catchment wells.

"Many people violate the gubernatorial decree because it has been poorly enforced and supervision has been very weak. The administration's limited personnel is not an excuse," he said.

The administration also tends to compromise with house owners over the decree, he added.

Those caught violating the gubernatorial decree are supposed to receive administrative punishment, such as the revocation of their building permits. Violating a provincial decree, however, is a more serious matter.

Bandjar said converting the gubernatorial decree into a provincial decree is a good idea as a provincial decree is more powerful, and those violating it will get three-month jail terms or be fined Rp 50,000.

He said the city administration should also launch campaigns, such as public presentations, to make Jakartans aware of the need and importance of catchment wells in their houses.

"Many people have not been well informed about such catchment wells," Bandjar said.

The gubernatorial decree regulates that all houses should build water catchment wells to preserve groundwater. (yns)