City still unready for water crises

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 07/25/2007 11:51 AM | Jakarta

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Water shortages have long been a regular occurrence in many parts in Jakarta, but the city administration has admitted it is still struggling to come up with measures to answer the problem.

The City Environmental Management Board (BPLHD) has conceded the administration still relies on ""old-fashioned"" programs such as cleaning rivers, re-greening forests and promoting percolation pits to manage water supply in the capital.

""We don't have special projects to anticipate the long dry period, maybe because rains continue to fall in the capital,"" said Daniel Abbas, the head of the board's environmental damage control unit.

""But frankly, we are confused by unpredictable weather phenomena nowadays. With that inconsistent weather, a water crisis could possibly come at the end of this year,"" Daniel said.

In the past, water scarcity had forced the administration to start supplying clean water to some areas in North Jakarta.

""As of June every year, we have distributed at least 150,000 cubic meters of clean water to residents. But, so far, there have been no complaints of water shortages from residents,"" Daniel said.

Half of around 10 million Jakartans rely on groundwater while the rest use piped water supplied by the city.

Due to last year's severe water crisis, a number of companies operating in the capital have also been forced to exploit more ground water to meet their daily needs.

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said Tuesday that a severe drought would hit Jakarta by next month.

""We predict the severe drought will begin in Indonesia's southern areas including Java island, Bali and South Sumatra between August and September,"" said Mezak Rataq of the agency's research and development center.

Experts have said human-induced global warming could also affect Jakarta's supply of clean water.

The administration reported that the capital suffered a water deficit of 36 million cubic meters each year, out of a total demand of 400 million cubic meters.

Daniel said that in order to reduce such deficits, his office would continue to push for the establishment of percolation pits to replenish the supply of groundwater.

The 2005 decree on percolation pits requires all owners of houses, high-rise hotels, apartments, private and state offices as well as shopping malls to set up percolation pits on their premises.

The owners of building with a roof of 50 meters width, must construct pit measuring two cubic meters.

The Jakarta needs at least 2 million percolation pits to effectively absorb the rain that falls on the city.

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