Five corporations operating in Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces have received Mata Persada awards for their efforts in protecting groundwater resources in their respective areas.

The awards were presented by the department of geological engineering of Gadjah Mada University’s (UGM) School of Engineering in Yogyakarta as part of efforts to promote groundwater preservation.

“[The companies] are among the best proponents of groundwater resource protection efforts, according to assessments we conducted in Yogyakarta and Central Java in cooperation with both provincial administrations,” the head of UGM’s department of geological engineering, hydro-geologist Heru Hendrayana, told The Jakarta Post.

The awards were bestowed on the sidelines of the second annual scientific meeting and conference of the Association of Indonesian Groundwater Experts (PAAI) held at the Ghra Sabha Pramana building on the university’s campus on Wednesday.

The five corporations are Sido Muncul, a herbal drinks and pharmacy company in Semarang, Central Java; Coca Cola Amatil, a manufacturer and distributor of ready-to-drink beverages, also in Semarang; PT Tirta Investama, which manufactures and bottles drinking water in Central Java; state-run Dr. Sardjito General Hospital in Yogyakarta and city-run tap water company PT Tirtamarta, also in Yogyakarta.

Heru said his department had developed a tool called Mata Persada, which could assess whether groundwater users used groundwater sustainably.

He said the tool had been trialled since 2015 in more than 10 industries in Central Java and Yogyakarta, which used groundwater in their production processes. The trials were conducted in cooperation with the Central Java and Yogyakarta provincial administrations.

Heru added that the tool could also be used to determine whether a company was eligible to receive a license to exploit groundwater resources in their respective regions or not.

“We are now pushing the government, especially regional administrations, to use the tool to protect groundwater resources,” said Heru.

He said such a tool was urgently needed to protect groundwater resources from over exploitation, especially considering the fact groundwater exploitation in Indonesia had not yet been adequately regulated.

Separately, Sardjito Hospital’s operational general manager Djoko Windoyo expressed gratitude for the award, saying the hospital had long been recognized as a green hospital.

With regards to the preservation of groundwater, he said, the hospital followed the principle of “letting no drop of rainwater leave the hospital compound.” To implement this principle, it has built over 150 dry wells in the compound to collect rainwater.

“You can find [dry wells] in almost every corner of the [hospital’s] compound,” said Djoko.

Ambrosius Padang Nurmandito of Coca Cola Amatil and Hadi Hartojo of Sido Muncul shared similar sentiments, saying their respective companies had done a lot to preserve groundwater resources including by maintaining a ratio of 70:30 in their use of surface and groundwater in their respective production processes.

Ambrosius even said that, apart from building dry wells, his company had also built a monitoring well to monitor the use of groundwater in the factory.

Other efforts, he said, included establishing a “Coca Cola forest” at its factory site and running water replenishment programs.

“We have 500 water replenishment spots in Semarang and 900 in Tengaran, both at the foot of Mount Merbabu, and 850 others in Magelang,” he said, adding that each spot measured an area of two meters by two meters with a depth of two meters.

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