'Stop ground water exploitation'

BOGOR: A local councillor has called on the Bogor municipal administration to stop making money by allowing the exploiting of groundwater by poorly planned developments.

Rizal Barnadi of the council's Commission D for development warned that if uncontrolled development continued, Bogor could become like Jakarta, which regularly experienced water shortages in certain areas.

Dewi Kurnia from the Bogor information office denied that the Bogor administration was unaware of the importance of sustainable development. She said Monday that the municipality's residential settlement agency last year built many water retention facilities.

She also said that all housing developers were obliged to build water retention facilities, and that the authorities had banned the construction of buildings along riverbanks. --Antara