Experts divided on Jakarta's prospects of water crisis

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

While agreeing that the supply of raw water from the Jatiluhur reservoir in West Java was diminishing, experts differed on Saturday as to whether or not the capital was facing a water crisis.

Suryono Herlambang, an urban planning expert with the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Tarumanagara University, called for measures to ensure that the capital would still have water in the taps beyond 2008.

However, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a hydrologist with the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), said there was nothing to worry about.

"Jakarta has great potential to benefit from the use of untapped ground water resources in the upstream areas, like in Puncak and Bogor in West Java, where water is abundant," Sutopo told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

"Maybe we need major investment to build pipeline infrastructure, but that's only at the beginning. Afterwards, we would not have to treat the water," he said, alluding to technology used in other cities around the world, including Munich in Germany.

Currently, the Jatiluhur reservoir supplies 75 percent of the water needs of the capital. The water level in the 4,500-square- kilometer reservoir, however, has dropped from the normal 98.84 meters to 92 meters.

PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya warned on Friday that unless the government found new water sources, the capital could suffer a severe water crisis as early as 2008.

Sutopo said that channeling ground water from the upstream areas would be cheaper than using costly treated river water.

Sutopo, who is involved in the development of the Ciawi reservoir in Bogor, West Java, said that the new reservoir would be operational by 2007 and could provide additional water supplies to Bogor and Jakarta.

Suryono, however, warned that Jakarta would be plunged into a water crisis if the government failed to make efforts to address the issue now.

"Personally, I am pessimistic that we can resolve the problem quickly. What the administration can do now is to put the water supply issue on its list of priorities ... The administration could require every development in the city to set aside space for water retention," said Suryono.

Sharing Suryono's concerns was Mochammad Ali, a hydrologist with the Ministry of Public Works, who said that the administration urgently needed to conduct a comprehensive study of the city's water needs to anticipate an increasing population and rapid development.

"It's our own fault as we never seriously took into account the issue of water conservation when we started developing the city. No wonder that now we see the city's water supplies reaching critical point," he said.

He urged the administration to start looking for other water sources, like the Ciliwung river and Cisadane river, to reduce dependency on the Jatiluhur reservoir.

He did not recommend the use of ground water, however, saying that excessive use of ground water, as is happening today, would lead to subsidence and salt water intrusion, thereby damaging the environment.

A report produced by PAM Jaya shows that as of December 2004, only 3,041,999 residents, or 34 percent of the city's total population of 8.7 million, have access to treated tap water, leaving the majority reliant on ground water.