Jakartans face serious water crisis
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Suparman, 45, a resident of Utan Kayu, East Jakarta, wonders why the water pump at his house has not been able to produce enough water for his five-member family for the past month.
From 10 a.m. until late in afternoon, the pump, which can draw water from a depth of nine meters, does not work.
"I want to buy a water pump that can reach a depth of 15 meters as the one in my house is no longer able to cater for our daily needs," Suparman told the Jakarta Post at the Kenari Mas market in Central Jakarta on Thursday.
Suparman is not the only person suffering from a water shortage. Similar complaints came from Indra Jaya from Cengkareng, West Jakarta, Hartono from Srengseng, West Jakarta, and Mulia Husen from Bogor, who are all looking for a more powerful water pump at the market.
A number of shopkeepers confirmed the increasing demand.
"There is a strong demand for jet pumps. In the previous months we sold only around one per day, but since early this month, we sell five per day on average. Only two days ago, I sold 10," said Gus from the shop Dunia Pompa.
Jakarta and its surrounding areas are suffering from water scarcity due to uncontrolled developments which ignore the environmental impacts. The green areas are dwindling as a great part of it has been converted into businesses or residential properties.
Rully Besari Budiyanti of Trisakti University's Landscape and Environment Institute, said the water crisis was a natural consequence of unsustainable development in the city.
Due to the continuous loss of the green areas, which also function as water catchment area, during the rainy season, the water flew directly to the sea, she said.
Rully said leaders in the city administration, including Governor Sutiyoso, were seemingly unaware of the importance of maintaining open areas in the city, which can function as water catchments during the rainy season.
According to Rully, the amount of open area in the city is continuously reducing, as indicated in the thrice-revised city master plan.
In the 1965 to 1985 plan, the proportion of undeveloped land was still 40 percent of the total. In the 1985 to 2005 master plan, it had dropped to 20 percent, while in the 2010 document, it was only 13.94 percent.
"At present, it is just under 10 percent," she stressed.
She said an undeveloped area that amounted to less than 10 percent of the total land area of the city was far from sufficient as the ideal was around 30 percent of the total.
Meanwhile, Anung Karyadi, a coordinator of the Indonesian Water Advocacy Network, said the lack of water catchments in the city had disrupted the natural groundwater cycle as most land could not absorb water during the rainy season.
As a result, Jakarta was experiencing a water crisis, said Anung, who is also deputy chairman of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).
He underlined two factors that caused water scarcity in the city: First, the continuing loss of green areas and catchments in the city to concrete; second, overexploitation of groundwater, both by businesses and households.
"As a result of these two factors, the water table has continuously fallen and there is no other way to cope than to economize in the use of water," he said.
"Save water; instead of washing your car every day, do it once every two days or less frequently," he said.