| |
No end in sight to Indonesia's water
shortage
By Kafil Yamin
JAKARTA - Long stretches of parched paddy fields
and vegetable farms lining the road are a testament to
the drought that has hit Java and other parts of
Indonesia. The arid landscape through Cikarang
industrial estate, 60 kilometers south of Jakarta, is
dotted with lamb and cattle eating dry grass here and
there, the rivers having dried up long ago. The wells
are empty.
"Life is really hard these days.
Water supplies are very short. We have to work very hard
to get a few buckets of water for cooking, drinking and
washing," said Usman, an angkot (small inter-city
public transport vehicle) driver.
Usman said
that although PAM Lynnaise Jaya, the local water
company, services his house, water only reaches his
place in tiny amounts, which means they have to adopt a
strict rationing system. "Every morning we share the
limited water there is for bathing as I, my two
daughters and two boys have to get ready go to work.
It's impossible for them to go to their offices without
taking a bath. Very often we don't set aside a portion
of water for cooking. We just have to buy a bottle of
drinking water and have breakfast somewhere on the way
to the office," he said.
By local standards
Usman and his family can consider themselves lucky. In
Cibarusah district, the water has totally run out. Some
residents are forced to roam around the district pushing
carts in search of water. "They come from villages all
around this area," said Aryanti, a local resident,
pointing to a rare spot where people have lined up to
get PAM-supplied water. "They rely on this water supply
because in their homes they don't have any water at
all."
Aryanti, who runs a shop near the popular
water spot, said the water does not flow regularly. "It
comes once every three days, or, in the case of an
emergency, we call the PAM office and then the water
flows," Aryanti said.
Just next to Aryanti's
shop are three school buildings. So strong is the smell
of urine from the school toilets that visitors entering
the buildings need to cover their noses when entering.
"There is not enough water to wash the smell away," said
Asep Suparman, a Cibarusah Junior High School security
guard. "Only when water flows freely from the spot, do
we have enough water to wash the bathroom."
Locals said they have never been through this
kind of predicament before. "It has only started
happening last month, when the dry season started," said
Aryanti, explaining that she puts aside an extra 150,000
Indonesian rupiah (US$16) a month to buy water.
Hectares upon hectares of dry rice fields on the
outskirts of Jakarta have been abandoned as farmers
leave the land in search of work, mostly as seasoned
construction workers in the capital. "Many people are
leaving the village. Most go to Jakarta to find jobs. In
Jakarta, they might find jobs, but also the same
situation with water," she said.
All around
Greater Jakarta the onset of the dry season has pushed
people to dig deep into their wells. "I got water only
after digging 22 meters deep," said Maman, a resident of
nearby Rawabuntu village, in Tangerang.
In some
areas, such as Tanjung Pasir village, locals can no
longer deepen their wells because even though they get
water, it is acidic in taste. As a relief measure, PAM
water is collected in big drums and distributed around
the village. "We made an agreement to use the PAM water
only for cooking and drinking. As for washing, we use
the acid water from our wells," said Hasan, a local
resident. Meanwhile in Sinarjati village, Bekasi, local
residents have no choice but to use the brown-colored
water from one of the few flowing rivers in the district
for washing.
Greater Jakarta's capacity to
supply its 11 million people with a regular and safe
water supply in times of crisis is being tested, and
locals from all around say it is failing that crucial
test.
PAM's ability to rise to the occasion is
also in doubt, with residents here saying that they got
less water in September than in August. "This is because
we got a reduced supply from the Jatiluhur reservoir,"
said Bernard Lavronge, a commissioner of PAM. "The water
volume in the reservoir is not short, but farmers along
the canal take water for their farms much more than
usual. They do it because of the current drought."
Environmental expert Mas Achmad Santosa said the
dry season is not entirely to blame, as warnings from
the Meteorology and Geophysics Bureau (BMG) have long
said that the area will face a severe water crisis in
the next 10 years. "But the government has never paid
serious attention to it," he said.
The BMG's
forecast is based on the fact that both residents and
industries have been vigorously exploiting the ground
water at unsustainable levels in recent times. "In
Jakarta alone, 9 million cubic meters of water is taken
every second. The exploitation will intensify in the
next 10 years. Around 33 billion cubic meters of water
will then be taken every second," said Achmad
Syafruddin, former chairman of the Indonesian Forum for
Environment, Walhi.
He said the Jakarta
administration should have anticipated this and
countered it with a set of comprehensive policies. "Had
they ruled that residents were not allowed to dig deeper
than 12 meters and industries no deeper than 100 meters,
then things would not be as bad as they are now," he
said.
He said Walhi had recommended this
water-usage plan six years ago but the government failed
to respond.
(Inter Press Service)
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
