Water shortage looms in Jakarta

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 10/26/2007 4:27 PM  |  Opinion

Human civilization is built on water, such as ancient Babylon, Egypt and other human settlements along great rivers such as the Euphrates, Ganges, Wolga, Bengawan Solo and others.

When a human settlement runs out of water it will die, as happened to ancient Maya civilization.

Eleven to 12 million people in Jakarta are drawing off water from the aquifer. If the draw off from the aquifer is faster than the recharge from the high plateaus and mountains the following consequence will happen.

The underground water table will drop, which will be followed by the subsidence of the land, and then the ingress of seawater into the groundwater will follow.

Groundwater that is already contaminated with seawater and becomes brackish is not drinkable. Then humans will migrate to find another source of drinkable water.

Floods are a serious problem but the incursion of seawater into the groundwater is more serious and is insidious, because it is not apparent to the eyes and is slowly but surely going deeper and further inland mixing with and displacing the groundwater.

Once the groundwater is contaminated with or displaced by seawater it would take hundreds or thousands of years to reverse the process. In fact I have been anticipating with alarm in the last 30 years what is going to happen to Jakarta if the city population keeps using groundwater for their water needs.

In my recent visit to Jakarta I found out that things are worse than I had envisaged. What I have feared has become reality. Lands in northern parts of Jakarta have subsided. Jakarta bypass has subsided by 50 centimeters since it was laid.

The deep wells in Jakarta have to go deeper and deeper to produce water, and their output has been dropping off with time and many wells have been producing undrinkable water.

Seawater has infiltrated as far as 7.5 kilometers from the coastline into the land and corrupted the groundwater such that it has become undrinkable.

I had the opportunity of seeing Governor Fauzi Bowo to express my concerns about water supply situation in Jakarta, and mention the existence of a master plan that would avert a water supply crisis and stop the flood problem.

Among other matters I raised with Fauzi was the need for periodic maintenance and the dredging of rivers and existing canals to restore and maintain their water flow capacities; building new canals will not solve the recurring flood problem. Also, to reduce traffic jams in Jakarta, opening hours for offices could be staggered as what is done in Hamburg, Germany.

T. SUBAGIO
Unley Park, Australia

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