Ignoring water concerns will lead to disaster

Sudibyo M. Wiradji, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The selection of "Water and Disaster" as the theme for the commemoration of this year's World Water Day again reminds us of the importance of protecting existing water resources.

If they are not protected, the coming generations will face disasters that might be worse than we could imagine.

Unquestionably, water is very significant in life, but ignoring global resource water management would eventually lead to serious disasters.

Water-related disasters, such as floods, drought and the shortage of ground water resources and other similar hazards has hit many countries due to the government's lack of seriousness on the issue.

And the consequences of such natural disasters are incredibly dreadful. Natural disasters can cause considerable loss of life and increase economic damage, affecting the lives of millions of people worldwide.

"Today about three-quarters of all natural disasters are related to weather, water and climate and their extremes. Too much, too little and too dirty water is having an adverse impact on national economies and health resulting in long-term adverse consequences for the well-being of the people," the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) Secretary General Michel Jarraud said in address in welcoming the World Water Day which was observed worldwide on March 22.

Since time immemorial, water bodies have attracted human settlements and associated economic activities. With the pressure of growing population and its concentration in urban centers, the process has accelerated in recent decades, thus exposing an ever- growing population to water-related hazards.

"The human, economic and environmental costs of such disasters have increased dramatically over the past 40 years," Michel said.

Indonesia is among the many tropical countries currently facing critical water problems related to the deteriorating condition of watershed and rainwater catchment areas.

"Uncontrolled logging activities have deteriorated most of the country's fragile tropical forest and thus changed the hydrologic behavior of the country's main rivers in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Irian Jaya (Papua). In Java, the degradation of many watershed and water catchment areas is partly associated with population pressure," Imam Soeseno, an environmental hydrologist wrote on www.hydroweb.com.

Even though efforts to prevent flooding continue through reforestation programs, the water-related problems remain unresolved, partly due to unceasing illegal logging activities. Consequently, serious flooding often affects large parts of the country during the rainy season, while other areas experience a long drought or the shortage of ground water during the dry season.

Illegal logging has also resulted in erosion and landslides throughout the archipelago. This has also caused domestic and industrial waste disposal problems in several urban areas, including Jakarta. Illegal logging has also damaged other water bodies, such as rivers, lakes, swamps and estuaries.

As the result of rapidly diminishing watershed and water catchment areas, most Indonesians have no access to clean water. According to a report issued by the Ministry of Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure, at least 80 percent of Indonesia's 215 million population have no access to piped water.

The report said that piped water supplies reach only 51 percent of Indonesia's urban population, which accounts for 20 percent of the country's total population and 8 percent of the rural population.

The enormous problems regarding safe and clean water supplies are accompanied by other problems such as securing water for irrigation, managing and controlling floods as well as various water-related disasters.

The number watershed areas categorized as being in critical condition, increased from 22 in 1984 to 59 in 1999. At least 600 of the 5,590 principal rivers in the country have the real potential to cause significant detrimental flood hazards and pose continuous threats to about 1.4 million hectares of flood-prone zones consisting of residential, industrial and agricultural areas, as well as transportation facilities.

According to the report, to handle this flood problem, 30,000 kilometers of dikes or embankments and 15,000 kilometers of river normalization are required. At present, the Indonesian government only has 2,600 kilometers of dikes, or 8 percent of the total required, and carry out 1,500 kilometers of river normalization, or 10 percent of the total required. With the current limited budget from the government, it is estimated that it will take 100 years to protect all susceptible areas.

With population increasing steadily, Jakarta is among the cities in the world facing chronic water-related problems, especially poor water quality and flooding.

According to Environmental Task Force (ETF), many Jakartans have no access to clean water because the ground water is contaminated with substances from industrial and household waste.

"Based on the results of laboratory tests in 2001, the water is contaminated with organic and inorganic substances and even with heavy metals like cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg) and lead (Pb)," said Ahmad Safrudin, chairman of the Environmental Task Force, a non-governmental organization (NGO) focusing on environmental concerns.

"The contaminated water is not recommended for drinking or cooking," he said.

The quality of water in Greater Jakarta started to worsen in the 1970s as large factories began to proliferate across the capital with little or no regard for the environment, he said.

Ahmad also blamed the government for poor water quality in Jakarta, saying that the government had failed to adopt proper policies for industrial waste, let alone the lay out of the city. The government, he said, had not taken strong action against industrial polluters.

With the government's lack of consistency in its lay out development policy, many green areas serving as water catchment areas have been paved over for commercial purposes. The development of residential real estate complexes throughout Greater Jakarta has replaced thousands of hectares of irrigated rice fields, small lakes, swamps and other green areas that double as water catchment areas. This new type of land use has many adverse hydrologic impacts. The most immediate impacts of such land conversion are the deterioration of ground water and large-scale flooding.

"Between 30 percent and 40 percent of Greater Jakarta was officially designated for green areas (in the 1970s). But now, only 7 percent remains," he said.

The poor handling of industrial waste and the weak control from the government contributes to the worsening water quality in the city. "In addition, the city has never had an integrated sewage system allowing household waste to be properly disposed of and processed," he said.

Serious flooding is another chronic water-related problem every year in the city. Floods occur almost every year, but there have been no comprehensive solutions.

Besides the hydrological facts such as its geographical position on a flood plain with 13 rivers and high rainfall, combined with the backwash effects of high tides from the Jakarta bay, the flood problem has been worsened by population pressure and socio-culture problems.

"In this metropolitan city, the people simply regard rivers as 'big garbage dumps'," said Imam Soeseno.