Rain has come to Indonesia but the problems remain

Rain has come to Indonesia but the problems remain

By Jon Corbett and Mary Stockdale

SAMARINDA: Well, the rains have finally come. The forest fires
in Indonesia will no longer be news in your part of the world.
But life in Samarinda, in East Kalimantan, is not yet back to
normal and it sometimes seems doubtful whether it ever will be.

The smoke you heard so much about was only one of the more
obvious effects of the long drought we've had for the past few
months. The closest fires were 100km away, but it felt as though
the neighbors had lit a large bonfire next door, with smoke
hanging in the air and large flakes of ash drifting out of the
sky into the house. The days were very dark, with the sun a deep
red glow even in the middle of the day. At its worst, we felt
very worried about the effects the smoke could be having on baby
Emma's lungs, but by that stage the airports were closed due to
low visibility and we couldn't have flown out anyway.

Even with the drought, it is strange that we would run out of
water, since Samarinda is on the banks of the Mahakam River, one
of the largest rivers in Borneo. Nonetheless, the river level
dropped so low that salt water reached 50km upriver, causing the
city's fresh water plant to close down for fear of pipe
corrosion. Samarindans are confused because they remember far
longer periods of drought in the past, during which fresh water
continued to flow. Some believe the forest clearance upriver has
caused the rain water to flow out to sea much faster than before.

Does this mean that from now on, whenever there is no rain for
more than a few months, Samarinda will have no fresh water?
Imagine a city of 400,000 without water. It was everyone's
obsession. Water, water and how to get it. People in vans, people
in trucks, people on motorcycles, people with wheelbarrows, all
went to the few wells that still had fresh water, waited in long
queues, filled up their jerry cans and sold water in the streets.

At least they were happy with the windfall profits, as was the
company that has a monopoly on bottled water. The price of water
rose day by day. The rich paid; the poor drank from the salty,
sluggish Mahakam River -- with the result that the hospitals
reported at least 40 deaths from typhoid and other waterborne
diseases.

The haphazard nature of obtaining water from street vendors
meant that we were never sure whether each batch of water would
be our last, making us strictly ration our use of it. Everyone
rarely bathed and seldom washed their clothes. The adults in our
household learned to bathe with just one ladle of water each,
although we tried to give Emma her daily basinful.

There were many other repercussions of the drought. Huge fires
burned down at least 800 houses in the city's slums, leaving some
4,000 people homeless. Neighbors there told us that everybody
just watched the houses burn, as there was no water to put the
fires out.

Prices in the local markets skyrocketed as the rice harvest
failed and the fruit and vegetable crops produced very little.
All sorts of other businesses, from restaurants to food
processing plants, were closed down, and shop owners were
complaining of low sales.

As we said, the rains have now returned, but even that was a
mixed blessing initially. You know what it feels like if you are
sitting next to a camp fire and someone pours a bucket of water
on it? The choking half-smoke half-steam made it difficult for us
to breathe for the first few days. We were warned not to go out
in the first rain as the acidity level would be too high --
although this wasn't heeded by many Samarindan children, out
celebrating the return of water.

It is hard to believe all is normal in the rest of the world
when one is in the middle of an environmental disaster, deprived
of the basics of air, water, food. At least we can fly away soon,
but we feel sad for all the Samarindans we will be leaving
behind. They are still affected by the combined effects of
drought and environmental mismanagement and will undoubtedly have
to face similar extreme conditions again in the not too distant
future.

Dr Mary Stockdale and Jonathan Corbett are researchers based
at the Oxford Forestry Institute, University of Oxford. They have
recently returned from a half year spent in Samarinda, East
Kalimantan, Indonesia.

-- Guardian News Service