Thu, 14 Aug 2003

Green Bogor faces parched earth, locals fear thirst

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

Bogor has been known as the city of rain. The city has always been blamed for "sending floods" to Jakarta.

Now, fogs and rainclouds, that usually covered the area from Puncak to Bogor city, are nowhere to be found.

Ironically, residents have started to scream demanding water.

The dry season, that has come since April, has damaged crops in villages around Bogor and emptied residents wells.

The drought was severe enough that it was necessary to drain the Ciliwung river flowing to Bogor in order to provide enough water debit to Kali Baru river that flowed through Ciluar, Cibinong, Cimanggis, Cisalak and especially Jakarta, an official told The Jakarta Post early this week.

Andi Sudirman, the supervisor of Katulampa dam, said that if the Ciliwung river flowing to Bogor was not drained then the Kali Baru river in Jakarta would literally be dry and consequently there would be an enormous pile of trash along it.

He also said that letting Kali Baru river to dry would affect farms and rice fields along the riverbanks in villages before Jakarta.

The Katulampa dam was established in 1911 by the Dutch Colonial to dam up Ciliwung river before Bogor city in order to redirect some of the flow to an irrigation path 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 Ciliwung river that would go through Bogor city.

However, in this dry season, the total water debit in the dike could only reach 1,600 to 1,700 liters per second, and therefore all supply in the dike was directed only to Kali Baru, said Andi.

He said that the main reason of 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 dike.

Andi dismissed the worries that Ciliwung river in Jakarta would be dry saying Cibalok river would refill the river near Bogor city.

Separately, Director of Bogor Tap Water Company (PDAM), Pupung Purnama, told the Post that his company had deployed every day five water trucks to supply tap water for residents in Ciampea and Jonggol.

He said that the water trucks supplied water not only to customers in housing complexes but to also the residents in villages.

Earlier, Yati Syafei, a resident of Katulampa village, East Bogor, said that her well was dried.

"My eight-meter-depth well is dry and it needs more deepening to get more water. We are lacking of water to drink," she said.

The company is underway in establishing a number of deep wells in West Bogor areas that also having water scarcity even in rainy season such as Leuwiliang, Parung and Jasinga, he said.

A deep well, which could supply water up to 15 liter per second, would need a depth of 215 meters and between Rp 250 million (US$29,070) to Rp 300 million worth of fund, he said.

However, the establishment would meet a financial constraint because the Bogor administration has never provided a penny for deep well establishment.