Scarcity of clean water blight urban areas
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Water scarcity poses huge problems for the residents of large cities like Jakarta, and impoverished meatball vendor Kusno is no exception.
The lack of clean water in the slum surrounding his run-down shanty in the Jembatan Besi area of West Jakarta forces 40-year- old Kusno to fork out at least Rp 48,000, or approximately US$5 per month, on clean water.
For the meatball vendor, whose monthly income only amounts to a few hundred thousand rupiah, that's a considerable sum.
"Actually, I've set up a water pump but I can't use the well water for cooking or drinking as it's too salty and smelly," said Kusno, who shares the shanty with the six members of his family.
Everyday, Kusno has to buy a few gallons of drinking water from his neighbor, a subscriber to the city water utility PDAM.
Like the members of many other poor urban communities in Jakarta, Kusno is a squatter. This is the main reason why he and other poor families in the area will never be able to obtain a water supply from PDAM.
Under prevailing regulations, squatters are not allowed to register with or be connected by PDAM on the grounds that they are not permanent residents.
PDAM is afraid that if the squatters were evicted by the authorities, the company would suffer significant financial losses as well as damage to its supply infrastructure.
There are probably millions of people living in urban areas who have the same problem as Kusno.
Rapid population growth has transformed most urban areas into densely populated warrens with limited access at best to clean water and other necessary facilities. To make matters worse, what water there is available is heavily polluted.
Overexploitation of ground water by industry and offices has reduced the amount of clean water while at the same time increasing seawater intrusion into ground water sources.
Deforestation and urban sprawl in some places, including Jakarta and Semarang in Central Java, has drastically reduced the size of water catchment areas. Once green areas in both cities have been developed into luxury real estate complexes or to make way for other development projects. The decreasing size of water catchment areas will certainly cause serious ecological problems, including flooding during the rainy season and prolonged dry seasons.
Excessive and poorly planned development projects have led to vast numbers of urban residents facing serious problems associated with a lack, or overabundance, of water. These problems include flooding. One clear example of this is Jakarta. The number of flood-prone spots in Jakarta has increased sharply from only 61 in l992 to around 152 in 2002.
Limited access to the water distribution network is another critical problem. PDAM Jakarta is capable of supplying water to only 40 percent of Jakarta's 12 million residents.
According to a researcher from the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB), the E-coli bacteria found in human feces are estimated to contaminate 90 percent of all well water in Jakarta.
Other big cities like Bandung in West Java and Surabaya in East Java face similar problems. In Bandung, for instance, fresh water resources have decreased significantly due to a lowering of the water table. This means that less ground water is available for use by the city's residents.
Efforts to deal with the water crisis have already been undertaken by the government, in this case the Office of the State Minister for the Environment.
Dodo Sambodo, an official at the ministry, said the efforts included reforestation projects in water catchment areas.
In cooperation with the National Land Agency, the government has strictly banned the construction of holiday homes and villas in headwater areas. Building factories along riverbanks is also now prohibited to prevent pollution.
"Our main target is to rehabilitate the catchment areas so as to increase water flow in the ground which will in turn increase fresh water resources in urban areas," explained Dodo.
He added that reforestation programs were also important for retaining water in catchment areas in order to prevent flooding.
His Office was currently negotiating with factory owners to encourage them to relocate their plants away from riverbanks.
The vast majority of factories in East Java province are located along riverbanks, creating major dangers for the environment. The factories usually dump their industrial waste directly into the rivers.
"Hopefully, we will be able to reach an agreement with them by next year," said Dodo.
The government alone, however, cannot solve all of the problems associated with water as these are the responsibility of all stakeholders, including the industrial sector and the public.
Former State Minister for the Environment Sonny Keraf suggested that all involved parties including the relevant government agencies, industry, non-governmental organizations and the community discuss and seek solutions to the problem.
"Environmental awareness in the community should be heightened to deal with these matters. The government can't walk alone," said Sonny.
Regarding reforestation, Sonny also urged the government not to regard forests as the country's main source of foreign exchange earnings.
Forest conservation must be made a primary program as well in a bid to achieve sustainable development, said Sonny.
Regarding water pollution, Sonny said that severe sanctions should be imposed on polluters, especially those from the industrial sector.