Drought all the more reason to halt pollution
Drought all the more reason to halt pollution
JAKARTA (JP): The water crisis that has developed in many
parts of Indonesia because of the severe drought is all the more
reason for everyone, most notably, industries, to stop polluting
the scarce available water resources.
State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja yesterday
issued an appeal to all manufacturing companies to improve their
waste management, specially if they discharge their refuse into
rivers.
"We have to take this step because the water crisis is
affecting households, industry and farming in some regions,"
Sarwono said, adding that the command is based on a Presidential
instruction.
The first step industries must take is to reduce the quantity
of the polluting substance being dumped into rivers, he said.
Second, they must adhere to maximum effluent levels set by the
Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) or strive to the
amount of waste below those levels.
Manufacturers who fail to observe the appeal could face
administrative sanctions, Sarwono said.
The water levels of major reservoirs in most provinces in
Indonesia have dropped by an average of one meter in the past
month as the bite of the dry season is felt earlier than usual,
taking the authorities by surprise.
Many parts of Java, Bali, East and West Nusa Tenggara, East
Timor, South Sumatra and the western part of South and Central
Sulawesi are among the worst affected by the drought.
In Semarang, Chief of the Central Java Agriculture Office in
Central Java Trijono said the early arrival of the dry season has
caused harvest failure in rain-fed rice fields.
"Some 16,000 hectares of rice fields have been dried out."
Trijono said that this translates into an equivalent loss of
82,000 tons of rice.
The regencies of Klaten, Grobogan, Sragen, Wonogiri where most
of the rice fields depend on rainfall, are the worst hit.
The agriculture office plans to distribute 30 water pumps to
10 of the worst affected regencies.
The drought has also taken its toll on households.
Residents in 60 villages in Banyumas and Cilacap in
southwestern Java, have had to abandon their wells because
seawater has seeped into the ground water.
Cloud seeding
Minister of Public Works Radinal Moochtar has said that the
government will attempt cloud seeding to induce rain in some
parts of the country this Thursday.
The job will be done in cooperation with the Agency for the
Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), he said.
"It is the best time for cloud seeding as suggested by
the Meteorological and Geophysics Agency," Radinal said.
Radinal yesterday inaugurated new pumping stations in
Bojonegoro in East Java to help the area overcome water
shortages.
The pumping station project for the lower reaches of the
Bengawan Solo river was financed by Japanese government aid.
The lower Bengawan Solo basin is one of the poorest harvest
regions for rice in Java mainly due to the lack of an irrigation
system.
In order to increase crop production and farmers' income
levels, the government plans to construct 33 small-scale pumping
stations in the lower Bengawan Solo basin. (prs/wah)