Reforestation program around Lake Toba

MEDAN, North Sumatra: Toba Lake Ecosystem Observation Agency plans to build 1,000 large ponds in the catchment area around Lake Toba in North Sumatra in a bid to support the reforestation program launched by President Megawati Soekarnoputri last March.

Chief of the North Sumatra Environmental Management Agency, Soangkupon Siregar, said that the project would save 168,770 hectares of the mountainous resort from devastation.

He said that the project would be financed by the foreign aluminum company PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminum (Inalum) that had allocated Rp 49 billion this year for the reforestation program.

The North Sumatra administration has allocated Rp 26 billion for the project.

Soangkupon added that the big ponds would be used to conserve rain water to avoid floods and to maintain the water level in the lake.

He said, however, that the low water quality caused by poor waste management was a hurdle in preserving the lake's ecosystem.

He added that the water volume in the lake was decreasing because of the deteriorating quality of the catchment area.

"If the two problems cannot be overcome, I'm afraid the lake's ecosystem will worsen," he said. -- JP