Ignoring water concerns will lead to disaster

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.