More animals killed on the roads is ‘good news’ for wildlife

DutchNews, February 12, 2016

The fact that more animals are being killed on the Dutch roads is often cause for celebration, Maurice La Haye – a researcher at the Dutch mammal society Zoogdiervereniging – told the Algemeen Dagblad. 

An increase in accidents is a sign that conservation efforts are working and the wildlife population in the Netherlands is increasing, La Haye told the paper on Friday. 

An estimated ten million animals are killed on Dutch roads every year, but millions more survive, mate, and multiply. This is at least partly thanks to the Netherlands’ network of 1,725 green passages, viaducts, and walking ledges that allow animals to safely cross roads in certain places. 

Green passageways

Since the mid-1980s, the Netherlands has been building these structures in an effort to preserve dwindling wildlife stocks, including the endangered European badger, and several species of wild boar and deer. 

One of these ‘ecoducts’ – the Natuurbrug Zanderij Crailoo – is the longest such structure in the world. Some 50m wide and 800m long, the ecoduct takes animals safely over a railway line, roadway, business park, sports complex and a river. 

The ecoducts allow animals to expand their habitats past the barriers of roads, rivers and railways. And it’s been successful. In 1950, the total deer population of the Netherlands was around 5,000. Now it sits nearer 110,000, Gijs Van Ardenne, chairman of the Wildlife Collision Foundation Netherlands told the AD. 

Healthy and thriving

As well as an increase in sheer numbers, Dutch wildlife now appears to be in better health than before.

‘Ditches and canals are no longer the open sewers of last century, but fish-rich waterways,’ Hugh Jansen, of research institute Alterra told the AD. ‘Dead animals we find and analyse are in very good condition. They are top athletes who encountered a car.’

Most rivers face severe pollution, study finds

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta  | Tue, 12/02/2008 7:20 AM  

Siti, a housewife who lives near the Kalimalang canal in East Jakarta, is familiar with the sight of dead fish floating up from the murky depths after overnight rains. 

“We often find dying fish and shrimps in Kalimalang river, usually in the morning after the heavy rains. Many residents go into the water to collect the fish,” she says. 

“What we (residents) understand is the fish die because certain companies dump hazardous waste into the river.” 

The recently published Indonesian State of the Environment Report includes the canal, which runs down the middle of Jakarta, as one of the most polluted rivers in the country. 

The 2007 report, issued by the State Ministry for the Environment, revealed that water quality in rivers, basins and small lakes continued to be severely polluted by domestic and industrial waste, despite being the main sources of drinking water. 

The ministry surveyed 33 rivers in 30 provinces, most of them moderately to severely contaminated.

The most polluted rivers are North Sumatra’s Deli, Lampung’s Way Sekampung, Jambi’s Batanghari, Banten’s Kali Angke, Yogyakarta’s Progo, East Java’s Brantas, and the Kalimalang. 

“The survey represents the real conditions of rivers in the country. But the report did not study the sources of pollutants,” Antung Deddy, deputy assistant minister for river and lake management, said Monday. 

The survey focused on 16 parameters, including biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen dioxide (COD), pH, and fecal coli and coli form. 

In terms of pollutants affecting the BOD — the total oxygen required by microorganisms to decompose organic substances in sewage — water in most of the rivers was no longer suitable as drinking water. 

“The highest BOD concentrations are in Java, with 185 milligrams per liter in Surabaya River and 155 in Citarum River, West Java,” the report said. 

The Public Works Ministry earlier predicted the country would need more than 311 million cubic meters of drinking water in 2012 because of the population boom. 

The densely populated Java Island alone will need about 184 million cubic meters in 2012 and 312 million cubic meters in 2025. 

The report, used as a basis for other departments in making policies related to infrastructure development, also found fecal coli levels that far exceeded government-specified limits. 

Water quality in basins also suffered from high concentrations of BOD pollutants, the study showed.

The study examined 18 basins, including Darma, Selorejo and Sempor on Java Island. 

The government blamed riverbank dwellers as the main source of the pollution. As of 2005, there were 118,891 families, mostly in Jakarta, living along riverbanks. 

In addition to this, about 8 percent of households across the archipelago dump their domestic waste directly into rivers, the survey found.

River-dredging project to supply mud to build up land for BMW Park

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 11/14/2008 11:09 AM  

In an ambitious new project, the Jakarta administration is turning the erosion process on its head and reclaiming mud from the city's rivers to use as soil for green spaces. 

Mounds of mud line the banks of Jakarta's trash-clogged and turbid rivers. Dredged during the daytime, they are trucked each night to a designated site. 

Budi Widiantoro, deputy head of the Jakarta Public Works Agency, said the dredged mud was taken to BMW Park in North Jakarta to eventually be used to make way for a green area. 

BMW Park was originally designated as a green area during the city's "Clean (Bersih), Humane (Manusiawi), Dignified (Wibawa)" program in the 1960s. But since the early 1990s, as many as 1,400 squatter families took over the land. Last August, the city administration evicted the families in an effort to reclaim the city's green spaces. 

The city says it plans to cart mud from 12 out of 13 rivers in Jakarta to the site before turning it into a dedicated park and international stadium. 

"The mud will be used to build up the land, after which it will be planted with trees," Budi said. 

He added the agency excavated the rivers annually to mitigate flooding, but the start of the project depended on the disbursement of the city budget. 

"To dredge the rivers, the agency needs Rp 23 billion (US$2.1 million)," he said. 

The project will dredge 243,322 cubic meters of mud from waterways, with operations already underway, running from November through to December. 

The city administration will also be helped out by the donation of two used boats from the Dutch government to help in the dredging efforts, Budi added. 

The boats will do the actual dredging, with trucks at the ready to cart the mud to the designated dump site. 

"The boats are used ones, we will replace them with new ones after the trial period," Budi said. 

The public works agency plans to take the mud to designated areas in Ancol and Jembatan Tiga, North Jakarta, if there is no more space at BMW Park. 

Beginning next year, the city administration will dredge major rivers in Jakarta, using a US$150 million loan from the World Bank. 

"The loan disbursement is still being processed," Budi said. 

Jakarta's rivers used to run clean and deep, but as the city developed, the amount of eroded earth and garbage pouring into them caused them to grow shallower and filthier. During the rainy season, areas along riverbanks are prone to flood. 

The city's flood-prone areas are: Sunter Agung, Koja, Penjaringan and Rawa Badak in North Jakarta; Bukit Duri, Pondok Karya and Bintaro in South Jakarta; Petamburan, Bendungan Hilir, Kebon Melati, Karet Tengsin, Tanah Abang, Kemayoran, Gunung Sahari Utara and Cempaka Putih in Central Jakarta; Rawa Buaya, Kapuk and Tegal Alur in West Jakarta; and Cawang and Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta. (fmb)

Govt to fund water quality control

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has allocated Rp 351 billion (US$37.4 million) for water quality control in municipalities and regencies across the country to help them address problems of river pollution and water scarcity.

"Some 450 municipalities and regencies will receive the special budget in different amounts, depending on the level of need in each area," Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar told reporters Wednesday after opening a one-day workshop to familiarize civil servants with the budget's spending guidelines.

He said water quality had become his major concern because water pollution, water shortages and floods were common environmental problems faced by almost all municipalities and regencies.

"The result of the 2006 river quality tests in 30 provinces showed the water has been polluted with bacteria," he said.

"While rural people rely heavily on rivers in their daily lives, most river water is harmful for consumption."

A 2007 Greenpeace report alleged water quality worldwide has been steadily declining in recent years.

The report cited several factors, including siltation from deforestation, mining and other land conversion activities, saltwater intrusion from over-extraction of water from underground aquifers, biological pollution from untreated sewage, chemical pollution from industrial and agricultural sources, and indiscriminate dumping of garbage in bodies of water.

The Greenpeace report concluded pollution had made already-scarce water resources even scarcer.

Since 2006, the Environment Ministry has been disbursing money to finance greening activities and build laboratories for water quality testing.

"The problem of water scarcity can be solved by planting more trees and establishing percolation pits, which function as water catchment areas," said Minister Rachmat.

Arief Yuwono, secretary to the environment minister, said the budget would also be spent on local training.

"Such training is important because without proper knowledge and skill, it will be hard for the local officials to implement water quality control," he said. (lln)

Students monitoring water quality

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Some 40 junior high school students turned out Sunday to do water quality tests on the murky Kalimalang River and were surprised by the results.

"Today the water in the Kalimalang has a DO (dissolved oxygen) level of 4 and a pH (acidity) level of 7. That means it could be processed and boiled to become drinking water," reported Adi, 13, a first-grader at Budi Harapan School.

Sunday's event was sponsored by the Indonesian Water Quality Management Forum (FORKAMI) while Adi's report is part of a month of activities linked to World Water Monitoring Day that are ongoing in Cipinang Melayu, East Jakarta.

The forum's training programs have been providing Cipinang Melayu community units with instruction on water quality and waste management since September.

Selected groups were each given Rp 1 million (around US$110) to initiate their projects.

The results, including biopores and water filtration systems, were shown at the event on Sunday.

"Everyone is excited about the sanitation program. We even put our own money into it," neighborhood unit chief Pangatino said, about a water filtration system his community adopted.

Rosmawati, representative of another community unit, said she and her neighbors were optimistic about a new biopore system.

"We only have two drills to share, but we've made around 20 holes with it over the last month ... so slowly we are reaching the goal of everyone having at least one biopore."

Novalinda from FORKAMI said the enthusiasm from the community made her hopeful.

"It shows that people really do want to keep the environment clean and we just need to give them a good financial head start."

She said the government should partner with NGOs in providing certain types of public services to the public.

"All these people need for clean water is access to available technology such as reservoirs that can be used to filter dirty water," she said, adding that Jakarta's residents would be financially capable of maintaining such systems.

"Just look at the people who are buying pipe water that may be 15 times more expensive than well or filtered water." Why not give them a better option, she asked.

Jakarta's clean water supply is diminishing with 87 percent of the city's shallow ground water contaminated with bacteria and industrial waste, while 78 percent of rivers are also contaminated, according to the latest data provided by the Indonesian Forum for the Environment.

Four-year-old World Water Day, each October, is a global education and outreach event designed to protect water resources. (anw)