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JP/6/14

Solution to water crisis?

This year's dry season arrived earlier than predicted and could develop into a disaster if the dry season became prolonged. It prompted the government to appeal to the public, particularly in Jakarta, to avoid wasting water and to be prepared for sacrifices now that the country was feeling the full heat of the dry season.

According to State Minister for the Environment Nabiel Makarim, the drought will adversely affect water supplies to farmers as well as tap water customers, cause crop failures and increase the threat of forest fires.

Besides criticizing the watering of gardens and washing of cars, Jakarta had called on local governments to take emergency measures by providing water pumps for areas suffering serious water shortages.

The central and local governments had allocated Rp 1.7 billion from the state and local budgets to provide the water pumps. A special humanitarian fund would also be set up to provide aid if people started to suffer from food shortages or other difficulties as a result of the drought.

What surprises us is not the fact that we are probably entering an abnormally dry season this year. But the fact that the government seems to be taken by surprise and forced to take emergency actions.

The whole world is facing an unprecedented water crisis. It is to bring home this grim fact that this year has been aptly named the UN International Year of Freshwater. To underline this year theme, the UN decided Saturday, March 22, 2003, as the World Water Day, when decision-makers from around the world gathered in Kyoto, Japan, for the 3rd World Water Forum to ensure that it makes a difference.

This year's World Environment Day which fell on Thursday, June 5, was themed "Water, two billion people are dying for it!" During the World Environment Day ceremony at the National Monument (Monas) park, President Megawati Soekarnoputri herself admitted the widespread problems of water scarcity and poor access to safe water facing the nation.

More than 1.2 billion people on this planet lack access to safe and clean water. Between 5 million and 7 million die every year from water-related diseases, including 2.2 million children under the age of five. These numbers are only going to get worse as the global population is expected to rise dramatically during the first half of the 21st century.

Experts say that 20 percent of the world's population living in 30 countries faced water shortages in 2000. That figure will rise to 30 percent of the world's population in 50 countries by 2025.

These facts describe only part of the global water crisis. Water is essential to food production and agriculture, which sustain human beings on this earth. There are currently 815 million undernourished people in the world, and as the global population grows, the United Nations says the world faces a disaster.

The statistics on Indonesia are not any better. At least 80 percent of Indonesia's population of 215 million have no access to running water which is supposed to be safe and clean, dry season or not. Rice production is under threat due to the conversion of 15,000 to 20,000 hectares of irrigated rice fields every year for non-agricultural use. Some 600 rivers out of a total of 5,590 rivers are deemed a significant flood hazard and pose a continuous threat to 1.4 million hectares of residential, industrial and agricultural areas.

Ironically, this country, at least according to the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI), has about six percent of the world's fresh water reserves, or about 21 percent of Asia-Pacific's fresh water reserves. According to a UN report released last March, Indonesia has an abundant amount of fresh water, standing at 13,381 cubic meters per capita per year. Compare that figure to Singapore's, with only 149 cubic meters of fresh water per capita per year, and still able to provide potable water to all of its citizens.

Minister Nabiel a couple of months ago rightly blamed rampant illegal logging, unrestrained land conversion and pollution for this country's ater crisis. But so far his appeals and statements seem to fall on deaf ears.

Yes, watering of gardens and washing cars during the dry season should be eliminated. The cause of Indonesia's water crisis, however, will not be eliminated by banning such wasting practices. Saving water as such is not the solution.