Pollution and clean water shortage
The worsening water situation in Jakarta and other major cities, most noticeably affects the poor and poses a serious public health hazard, report The Jakarta Post's Ida Indawati Khouw, Maria Endah Hulupi and Pandaya.
JAKARTA (JP): "After the heavy rain, a beautiful rainbow stretches down this road, right here, for everyone to see," said Ikin, with a cheeky grin on his face.
"Everybody in the neighborhood takes the sight for granted."
Is Ikin joking? Probably. But the blue collar worker of a garment factory was talking about a serious problem in his neighborhood of Semanan, West Jakarta, where garment factories and very crowded residential areas exist side by side.
"Rainbow" is a metaphor he uses to describe the neighborhood's classic colors: red, green, blue, black... all the colors that run down the overflowing narrow gutter where major factories dump untreated industrial waste.
The gutter empties into River Mogot, which like any other river in the capital, is notoriously polluted. The water is thick, black and stinky because it serves as a dump for domestic and industrial waste.
Along River Mogot, which is virtually stagnant during the dry season, live thousands of impoverished families who rely on groundwater supplies for drinking, bathing, cooking.
Many Jakarta townsfolk may not be aware that by dumping waste in the river, they are poisoning each other. Although Jakarta had launched Prokasih (Clean River Program) more than 10 years ago, all of the city's 13 rivers remain heavily polluted.
Factories, families and people in the street dump their toxic waste into the river without proper treatment, while an estimated 90 percent of shallow wells (up to 40 meters deep) in Jakarta have been polluted by domestic waste.
Seawater intrusion
Intrusion of brackish water also poses a serious problem to people living in the coastal area. Look at Marunda, a somewhat "isolated" subdistrict in Jakarta Bay. It is a typical slum area where potable water is scarce.
The swampy area by the sea, which has been jokingly, though rightly, called "Jakarta's toilet", is devoid of potable water unless one is rich enough to afford a powerful machine capable of pumping out water from a depth of 80 meters.
Residents, mostly fishermen living in houses built on stilts, have to buy drinking water for Rp 750 per jerrycan (approximately 15 liters). In the rainy season, they save on costs by catching rain water.
When a dam in East Jakarta recently burst and disrupted water supplies from state-run water enterprise, PAM, the price of water soared to Rp 1,500 a jerrycan.
"We had to queue for hours to get water from a nearby water pump," said ibu Dedeh, a resident of Marunda Baru.
In North Jakarta, where the water crisis is most severe due to its proximity to the sea, only 50 percent of the population have access to drinking water services. The rest have to buy it from traders.
The increasingly complicated water crisis has seriously affected the low-income bracket, who have no access to clean water services. If there is any party that benefits from the crisis, it is undoubtedly the bottled water companies.
On the other extreme, many wealthy people take water for granted. It is common knowledge that many wealthy people in expensive housing complexes pump ground-water for their private swimming pools, robbing water resources from the neighborhood.
At the height of the 1997 dry season, a resident of a housing complex in Duri Kosambi, West Jakarta, was forced to dismantle his high-powered jet pump system by neighbors who believed he had drained groundwater in the neighborhood.
In industrial centers like Greater Jakarta, limited water sources are "fought for" by households and industry.
In its May edition, Warta Konsumen, a newsletter published by the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI), reported that 30 percent of the water used in industry is groundwater, 60 percent surface water and tap water from PAM accounts for a mere 10 percent of its total use of water.
The slack enforcement of the law on the exploitation of groundwater and the inadequate tap water supply has encouraged excessive exploitation of groundwater by both industry and individuals alike.
Health hazards
The water crisis has sparked health concerns. Even tap water is not guaranteed to be free from contamination by heavy metals. For example, YLKI found in a 1990 survey that Jakarta PAM water contained 0.0024 ppm of mercury, 2.4 higher than the Health Ministry standard of 0.001.
The unchecked dumping of waste has caused widespread pollution in rivers across Indonesia. See the table below for details.
Heavy metal content in rivers in Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan
(Metal, Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Health, Ministry, Standard): (Cadmium, 0.04, 0.20, 0.06, 0.005); (Chromium, 0.03, 0.02, 0.04, 0.05); (Copper, 0.14, 0.13, 0.00, --); (Iron, 9.25, 3.40, 10.55, 1.0); (Manganese, 0.48, 0.48, 0.50, 0.5); (Nickel, 0.22, 0.12, 0.00, --); (Lead, 0.43, 0.11, 0.00, 0.05); (Zinc, 0.41, 0.09, 0.08, 0.15)
Source: Kualitas Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia, 1992
A toxicologist from the Jakarta Islamic Hospital Foundation, Ahmad Hidayat, said that the water supplied from PDAM comes mainly from rivers exposed to household waste. As for underground water, the quality depends on location. In coastal areas, the water is usually unpotable due to sea intrusion, while those in high density areas are contaminated with various disease-causing organisms, such as E.coli bacteria.
In crowded residential areas, septic tank and wells are usually too close to each other. The law requires that the minimum distance is 20 meters.
Good drinking water is clear, odorless, free from silt, metals or contaminating organisms -- a requirement that PAM has yet to achieve.
Long-term exposure to heavy metal pollutants, existing in the air and water are not tangible but lead to health problems affecting the nervous system, organs, creating muscle pain, reducing intelligence and triggering a chronic fatigue syndrome.
Studies on minerals show that mercury can cause mental retardation, gait and visual impairment; abnormal lead levels are associated with a lack of attention, increased impulsiveness, aggression and erratic behavior; while aluminum intoxication may contribute to hyperactivity.
Ahmad suggested that the public are advised to find a reliable filter to remove harmful substances and boil water properly to kill any hazardous living organisms.
"A good boiling pan is also necessary to avoid possible aluminum contamination from the pan," he said.
Water testing is available at the laboratory of state-owned surveyor Sucofindo on Jl. Arteri Tol Cibitung, Bekasi.