Ciliwung river drained to help Jakartans
Theresia Sufa The Jakarta Post Bogor
Bogor is known as the city of rain. The city has always been blamed for "sending floods" to Jakarta when its rivers overflow sending torrents of water into garbage-clogged rivers and canals in Jakarta.
Now, the fog and clouds, that usually cover the area from Puncak to Bogor city, are nowhere to be found.
Ironically, residents have started to scream for rain.
The dry season, that began in April, has damaged crops in villages around Bogor and dried up residents wells.
The drought is severe enough that it was necessary to drain the Ciliwung river that flows through Bogor in order to provide enough water debit to the Kali Baru river that flows through Ciluar, Cibinong, Cimanggis, Cisalak and most importantly Jakarta, an official told The Jakarta Post early this week.
Andi Sudirman, the supervisor of Katulampa dam, said that if the Ciliwung river was not drained then the Kali Baru river in Jakarta would dry up and consequently there would be an enormous pile of trash along it.
He also said that if the Kali Baru river was allowed to dry it would affect farms and rice fields along the riverbanks in villages before Jakarta.
The Katulampa dam was established in 1911 by the Dutch Colonial administration to dam up the Ciliwung river before Bogor city in order to redirect some of the flow along an irrigation line called Kali Baru.
According to Andi, the water debit in the dam could reach between 10,000 and 20,000 liters per second of which between 5,000 and 6,000 liters were redirected to Kali Baru while the rest was released to the original course of the Ciliwung river that would go through Bogor city.
However, in the current dry season, the total water debit in the dam only reached 1,600 to 1,700 liters per second, and therefore the total water in the dam was directed to Kali Baru, said Andi.
He said that the main reason for the decreasing water debit in the dam was the declining water debit in Telaga Warna, a lake located at the foot of Mount Gede-Pangrango which was the main source for the dam.
Andi dismissed concerns that the Ciliwung river in Jakarta would dry up saying that the Cibalok river would refill the river near Bogor city.
Separately, director of Bogor Piped Water Company (PDAM), Pupung Purnama, told the Post that his company deployed five water trucks to supply clean water to residents in Ciampea and Jonggol every day.
He said that the water trucks supplied water not only to customers in housing complexes but also to the residents in villages.
Earlier, Yati Syafei, a resident of Katulampa village, East Bogor, said that her well had dried.
"My eight-meter-deep well is dry and it needs to be drilled further to get more water. We don't have enough water to drink," she said.
The company is establishing a number of deep wells in West Bogor areas that also experience water shortages even in the wet season such as Leuwiliang, Parung and Jasinga, he said.
A deep well, which could supply up to 15 liters of water per second, would need a depth of 215 meters and would cost between Rp 250 million (US$29,070) to Rp 300 million, he said.
However, the Bogor administration has not provided any fund for sinking deep wells.