Water crisis looms for city as groundwater dries up

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 08/16/2007 1:20 PM  |  Jakarta

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta's main water catchment region is heading for a severe water crisis, a study has shown.

The Jakarta Mining Agency recently conducted a study that found that South Jakarta is losing groundwater.

""Other areas will face a crisis in the dry season but it will trouble South Jakarta more because most of the residents rely on groundwater,"" Bowo Saroso, head of the agency's groundwater exploitation licensing team, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Only a few residents are subscribed to the city's piped water operator company.

Bowo said that despite high rainfall in South Jakarta, only little had infiltrated into the groundwater due to the lack of percolation pits and open green zones.

""The poor conservation of water catchment areas and lack of percolation pits to store the rainfall makes a water crisis more visible in the area,"" he said.

Bowo said that several areas in East Jakarta, such as Duren Sawit, would also suffer water shortages during this year's dry season.

""But since the access for piped water is better, such a water crisis could be mitigated in the area,"" he said.

In the low-land area of North Jakarta, said Bowo, most residents had long stopped using groundwater because it was of poor quality.

The water shortages are a regular occurrence in many parts of Jakarta during the dry season.

Half of the around 10 million Jakartans rely on groundwater while the rest use piped supplies.

PT Palyja, one of the city's water operators, said that the supply of raw water from Jatiluhur dam in West Java has declined significantly in recent days.

Palyja spokeswoman Meyritha Maryanie said that the company currently received between 4,500 to 4,500 liters of raw water per second, down from the normal 6,200 liters per second.

She said that the declining raw water supply had disturbed distribution to customers including in those in Palmerah, West Jakarta, Sudirman in Central Jakarta and Gatot Subroto in South Jakarta.

Jakarta has no control over the water management system in its upstream areas, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi, the main sources of water for the capital.

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

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

The administration issued a decree in 2005 requiring 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 to harvest rain.

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