Rain, Floods Trigger Landslides Along Jakarta’s Crowded Rivers

Jakarta Globe, Lenny Tristia Tambun, February 1, 2014

Huts along a riverbank sit inundated by the flooded river in Jakarta, on Jan. 18,
2014. Indonesia is regularly affected by deadly floods and landslides during its
wet season. (AFP Photo/Bay Ismoyo)

Jakarta residents should not only watch out for floods but also for landslides, which have become a critical issue in the city, according to a top official.

Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said that areas around riverbanks were particularly vulnerable.

Four housing units in Pesanggrahan, South Jakarta, collapsed on Wednesday as a result of a landslide. Eight households — or a total of 31 people — were affected by the disaster and needed to be evacuated.

The houses that collapsed were located close to a cliff next to the site of a river-widening project, which aims to improve the flow rate of the Pesanggrahan by dredging it and widening its banks.

The project contractor has placed sandbags along the Pesanggrahan’s banks to prevent further landslides.

Similar projects are being carried out along other stretches of the Pesanggrahan as well as the Angke and Sunter rivers, which pass through areas prone to rising water levels during the rainy season, and are part of the Jakarta administration’s plans to control flooding.

“This [landslide] is why we have to be firm about evicting residents who live on riverbanks or around dams. It’s too dangerous to build houses there,” Basuki said on Thursday.

He added that people continued to violate zoning regulations by building homes near rivers and dams without permits.

According to Basuki, low-income residents have been living around Jakarta’s rivers and dams for some 40 years.

The city administration is planning to build walls around these bodies of water to prevent landslides and relocate the residents to subsidized apartments.

Landslides also occurred in Condet, East Jakarta, on Wednesday when houses built around 10 meters from the Ciliwung River collapsed and fell onto three houses located closer to the water’s edge.

Another landslide occurred early in the morning of Jan. 19 in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, after heavy rainfall, sending two residents into the Ciliwung River when their house collapsed.

The were found alive by a search and rescue team.

More than 55,000 people have settled along the Ciliwung’s riverbanks, mostly in squatter settlements.

Jakarta Business District Floods After West Flood Canal Dike Collapses

Jakarta Globe, Ronna Nirmala & Lenny Tristia Tambun, January 17, 2013

A general view showing floodwater at Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in

Central Jakarta. (EPA Photo/Bagus Indahono)

Related articles

• Editorial: All Aboard for the Sake of The Capital
• Monitor Lizard Sightings Set Off ‘Crocodile’ Alarms in Flooded Central Jakarta
• Floods Kill at Least 9 in Jakarta; PLN Cuts Power Supply
• SBY Orders National Police to Aid in Jakarta Flood Relief
• Jakarta in Emergency Status Until Jan.

Central Jakarta’s business district flooded with water on Thursday after a 30-meter-long section of the West Flood Canal dike collapsed, the Jakarta Public Works Agency said.

Jakarta officials suspect the collapse was caused by surge of water sent into the canal after the Manggarai floodgate was opened hours earlier. The dike could not withstand the force of water, which flowed into the canal at 500 cubic meters per second, Jakarta Public Works Agency head Hendri said.

Homes and roads in the Menteng area were inundated with 1.5 meters of water late Thursday morning as floodwaters covered portions of Jalan Teluk Betung and Tosari. Jalan MH Thamrin and Jalan Sudirman were also underwater by Thursday afternoon.

Train service was cancelled in the greater Jakarta area after floods destroyed 40 meters of tracks near the Tanah Abang station, KAI spokesman Mateta Rizalulhaq said.

The train company is unable to fix the damaged tracks until the dike is repaired.

“We cannot fix the railway as long as the water is still there,” Mateta said. “It can only be done after it is dry.”

Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo visited the site at Thursday afternoon and urged the Ministry of Public Works to fix the dike while emergency funding is available.

“I will call on the Ministry of Public Works to fix this,” Joko said.

As long as the dike remains damaged, the flooding will continue along Jalan Thamrin and Jalan Sudirman, Hendri said.

“If it is not fixed, the floods… will keep on getting higher,” he said.

The agency plans to construct a temporary stone wall to try to stop some of the rushing water before crews begin making permanent repairs.

Jakarta will remain under emergency status until January 27.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, second left, and Foreign Minister

 Marty Natalegawa, left, roll up their pants as they inspect the inundated

 yard of the presidential palace in Central Jakarta. (Photo courtesy of 

presidensby.info)

Related Articles:

Resources related to the 2013 Jakarta Flood

Jakarta Residents Flooded by Frustrations

Better than nothing

The Jakarta Post, Antara | Tue, 12/08/2009 3:57 PM | National

Elementary school students get on a makeshift raft to cross their flooded schoolyard in Pekanbaru, Riau, on Tuesday. Annual flooding, caused by the Siak River bursting its banks, has hit Pekanbaru, inundating hundreds of buildings and disrupting school activities. Antara/FB Anggoro

Dirtiest river

The Jakarta Post, Sun, 12/06/2009 5:37 PM | National

Two scavengers search for plastic garbage in Citarum River, Baleendah in Bandung on Sunday. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has declared the 270 kilometer river as the world’s most polluted river. (Antara/Rezza Estily)

River trip

The Jakarta Post, Antara | Sat, 12/05/2009 1:48 PM | Jakarta

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Agung Laksono (second left), Jakarta Governor (third left) and Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufrie wave to local residents living on the sides of Ciliwung River during a visit on Saturday. The government is planning to construct an integrated place to repair the to the murky, garbage-ridden, river and to relocate the residents. Antara/Salis Akbar

Related Articles:

East Flood Canal Functional by 2010

Jakarta holding flood evacuation drills

President: Let's consider moving RI's capital

SBY: New capital city needs consideration

Manggarai sluice gate on alert for flooding

The Jakarta Post, Thu, 04/09/2009 12:25 PM

JAKARTA: The South Jakarta Manggarai sluice gate was on level III alert, the third highest alert level, on Wednesday, as the water level in the Ciliwung river rose due to spillover from upstream Bogor, West Java.

"The Manggarai waterway water level is currently 825 centimeters," Manggarai sluice gate officer Ibnu told Antara news agency.

The water level was 810 centimeters at 8 a.m., 60 centimeters above the normal limits, he said.

Separately, officials at the Katulampa sluice gate in Bogor said the water level was 60 centimeters, 20 centimeters below the alert threshold, at the dam, which is a vital barrier to flooding in Jakarta.

It generally takes between 10 and 11 hours for water from Katulampa to reach the Manggarai sluice gate, the main barometer for flooding in Jakarta. -JP

'It Sounded Like Thunder, Then All Hell Broke Loose'

The Jakarta Globe, Nivell Rayda & Muningar Sri Saraswati, March 28, 2009

See Also: The Situ Gintung Disaster: Special Coverage from the Jakarta Globe

“It sounded like thunder, and moments later all hell broke loose,” said Rachman, whose home is near the Situ Gintung reservoir, recounting the moment in the dark early hours of Friday when part of the high mound of earthen embankment at the northeastern end of the reservoir suddenly crumbled, sending water gushing down into the natural valley below.

Rachman, whose home was spared by the flash flood, said that he and other residents had been worriedly watching the bank of the reservoir as the water level was nearing the brim following recent rains in the area and in upstream regions.

“At about midnight [Friday], water levels almost reached the edge of the dike,” Rachman said.

“Residents saw that water was already leaking [from the bank] and it gradually got worse.”

A roughly 20-meter pan of the embankment finally crumbled under the pressure of the water at about 4 a.m.

The Situ Gintung dike, built by the Dutch more than 76 years ago, retained some two million cubic meters of water in the 21-hectare reservoir. Cracks had already become noticeable in the embankment there about a year ago, the local urban ward leader said.

Water gushing through the breach left the reservoir almost empty in just about 10 minutes. Rachman said he watched helplessly, and in horror, from a height as a torrent swept everything clear from its path.

The raging water swept through houses, most of them semi-permanent, and residential areas along its path before its force found a channel into the Pesanggrahan River about a kilometer away.

It destroyed hundreds of houses in three densely packed neighborhoods in Cireundeu, an urban ward in Banten Province with a population of around 30,000.

Most of the victims were caught in their sleep. An 8-year-old boy, Ferry, miraculously survived the flood and was found in his wet pajamas atop his neighbor’s roof. His mother and younger sister were found dead later, while his father and an elder brother remained missing .

Early risers were not spared. Many women had left long before dawn broke to shop at the main traditional market in Ciputat, about 2.5 kilometers away.

At about 7 a.m., one of the women returning from the market screamed hysterically as she discovered that her house was gone and her two sleeping little children missing.

“It should have been me, it should have been me,” she wailed.

Rescue teams rushing to the area were hindered by the thick sludge deposited by the water after the floods subsided, as well as piles of debris.

Dead bodies were still being found well into the afternoon, some inside houses still inundated. By late Friday at least 58 people had been found dead. Rescue and evacuation efforts were also hampered by the small and winding alleys in the slums surrounding the affected areas.

The water, flushing into the Pesanggrahan River, caused flooding as far away as the Rempoa area of South Jakarta, about four kilometers away from Situ Gintung, and cut off traffic on the Ciputat main road, inundating an important bridge there.

Temporary shelters and operational centers were set up at two private universities in the area, and most of the dead found were sent there for identification and for their families to claim. Others were sent to the Fatmawati General Hospital about 30 minutes away.

The three venues were packed with people looking for their missing relatives, checking bodies laid on the floor and covered by thin blankets or batik cloths.

Top government officials, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto and others, all converged on the site in order to be briefed on the disaster and to issue directives.

The officials pledged to help the survivors rebuild their homes and to construct a stronger embankment. Situ Gintung acts as one of the main fresh water reservoirs for the city.

Related Articles:

Fifty-six lakes around Jakarta vanished in past five years

Death toll dam burst climbs to 69

22 missing in collapsing dam incident

President instructs reconstruction of Situ Gintung dam

Govt to hand over cash aid for collapsed dam victims

More bodies of dam burst victims found

At least 50 dead in 'mini tsunami' after dam bursts in Jakarta

Never give up

The Jakarta Post  |  Mon, 03/02/2009 11:55 AM  
 

 Two residents row a wooden boat to transport their rice crops in flooded Tiyak village, Kanor district, Bojonegoro regency. At least 49 villages in 11 districts in the regency were inundated over the past three days due to the overflowing Bengawan Solo River. JP/ID Nugroho

Jakarta Predicted to be Underwater By 2012

Monday, 02 March, 2009 | 16:23 WIB 

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Firdaus Ali, a technical environment researcher from the University of Indonesia, predicts that Jakarta will be underwater before the year 2012. He cited as the cause the excessive suction of ground water in the Jakarta area, resulting in the continuing subsidence of the land surface. “Not only will the city go underwater, we will also suffer from dehydration prior to that,” said the doctorate from the University of Wisconsin contacted by Tempo yesterday. 

Firdaus’ calculation was based on the data of land subsidence in the capital city, which ranges around 10 centimeters a year in average. In West Jakarta, during the past 11 years, the land surface subsided by 1,2 meters. In Kemayoran and Thamrin in Central Jakarta, it has lost ground by 80 centimeters for the last 8 years. “If this continues, Jakarta’s land surface will be below sea level,” Firdaus said. 

City Environment Committee chief, Darrundono, shared a similar opinion, pointing out that extreme exploitation of ground water has caused a drastic land subsidence. He said ground water supply is not increasing, yet its consumption keeps going higher. “A ground water crisis in Jakarta has come to a dangerous stage,” he cautioned. 

The Jakarta administration plans to increase fees for ground water usage by luxury homes and industries to 6 – 16 times higher. This is aimed at reducing consumption which has become more exploitative. 

Increasing fees, Firdaus said, is one of the instruments to reduce its usage. Users would be persuaded to use potable water from the services of the state-run Water Supply Company (PAM). “Ground water tariffs should be higher than that of PAM,” he said. 

Every year, 320 million water cubic meters are sucked up from the ground, according to Firdaus. Yet, the reasonable amount should be only 38 million cubic meters. Meanwhile, the official data cites only 21 million cubic meters allowed to be consumed. “The remaining must be taken illegally,” he said. 

According to Firdaus, extreme ground water exploitation creates a hollow in the earth. The resulting pressure causes the land subsidence. There are already many hollow areas around. “Even local rainfall can flood many areas,” he said. 

Darrundono said the subsidence will cause Jakarta to slowly go below sea level. Sea water intrusion has currently reached 11 – 12 kilometers from the coast. “Sea water intrusion has reached the Setia Budi area in South Jakarta. Floods will become even more unmanageable,” he said. Sea water intrusion and subsidence can also cause buildings to collapse. 

Darrundono criticized the construction of super-block buildings and skyscrapers in Jakarta, which also takes up excessive amount of ground water. 

SOFIAN| LIS

Daily trash

The Jakarta Post | Thu, 02/12/2009 4:16 PM 

 Omen, a Jakarta Sanitation Agency worker, collects trash on Utan Kayu river in East Jakarta on Thursday. He works everyday, from morning until late in the afternoon, cleaning the river from domestic garbage thrown recklessly by people living by the river. JP/P.J. Leo

 

Flooded roads around Johar market in Semarang

The Jakarta Post   |  Sun, 02/08/2009 3:17 PM  

Flooded market road: A woman keeps her feet dry aboard a pedicab after shopping at Johar market in Semarang on Sunday. Floods inundated roads around the Johar market, bringing the normally bustling market to a standstill. JP/Suherdjoko

Related Articles:

Floods inundate hundreds of Semarang houses 

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 02/08/2009 3:14 PM 
 

Hundreds of houses in Mangkang Kulon, Semarang, Central Java, were inundated by flood as heavy torrential rain poured over the city since Saturday evening, tempointeraktif.com reported Sunday. 

"We had to evacuate because our house went under water," Maulida, a resident of Kauman said, adding that Kauman was among the worst hit areas with flood waters reaching up to a meter. 

According to Maulida, the flood waters were a result of an overflow of Wetan River, which connects Semarang and Kendal. 

"The high of the flood waters increases annually. Last year the water level was as high as an adult's stomach," he said, adding that this year's flood were the hight of an adult's chest. 

He argued that the floods were a result of increasing forest to housing complex-conversions. 

"Most of the green zones and forrest in upper Semarang were converted into houses," he said.

Most parts of Semarang inundated, airport closed

Indonesian floods close airport, cause landslides

Clean canals could reduce flooding by 40%: Expert

Agnes Winarti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 02/02/2009 4:05 PM  

Dredging Jakarta's rivers and canals could reduce flooding in the city by 40 percent, an expert from the Netherlands says. 

"Only by dredging them will we be able to reduce the effect of flooding by 40 percent," Peter Vroege told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview. 

Vroege leads a team of Dutch experts assisting the city administration's efforts to dredge Kali Mati and Kali Pademangan canals in North Jakarta. 

"Most Jakarta rivers and canals have silted up by up to 50 percent *of their original depths*," Vroege said, quoting a 2007 study by the city's river management body and Dutch experts under the Partners for Water program. 

According to the study, Jakarta has 18 main canals and over 500 smaller canals that are 2 to 15 meters in width. The study estimates that the city's network of canals has become silted up with 9 million cubic meters of sediment and waste. 

The city administration said the city's canal network performed only at 50 to 70 percent of its capacity. 

The system can accommodate a maximum of 50 millimeters of rainfall in a day. However, daily rainfall exceeding that amount is not uncommon during the rainy season. 

Vroege said the canals should be dredged regularly. 

"In Holland, the canals are dredged once every five or 10 years.*But*how frequent the dredging is will depend on whether people stop throwing garbage into the canals," he said. 

"That's why the administration needs to establish a better waste system and keep*reminding the people*not to throw away garbage into canals." 

City Public Works Agency head Budi Widiantoro said his office had removed 350 cubic meters of mud from the Kali Mati and Pademangan canals, which it then dumped into a nearby swamp in Ancol, also in North Jakarta. 

"After the two canals, we will *prioritize to* dredging the canals in Utan Kayu in East Jakarta, Kebon Bawang in North Jakarta and Krukut Bawah in Tanah Abang and Rawa Kerbau in Cempaka Putih, both in Central Jakarta," he said. 

Budi said that this year the administration had allocated Rp 1.5 billion (US$133,928) for dredging medium-size canals, including Kali Mati and Kali Pademangan. 

The administration has also earmarked Rp 200 billion to dredge Ciliwung River, which runs through Manggarai, Gunung Sahari and Gajah Mada. 

"We will start that in May," he added. 

The administration is also awaiting the disbursement of a World Bank loan worth US$150 million from the central government as part of a project to dredge 18 key drainage canals and retention basins. 

Of the loan, $5 million is allocated for procuring heavy equipment, and the rest is for operational expenses.

Jakarta to revamp Manggarai sluice gates

Triwik Kurniasari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 01/27/2009 1:27 PM  

The city administration plans to build one more gate at South Jakarta's Manggarai sluice gates to regulate the water flow better. 

"The new gate would be installed next to the existing ones, requiring the government to acquire some land plots," Pitoyo Subandrio, head of the Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Bureau at the Public Works Ministry, said on Saturday. 

"The new gate will reduce flooding because the water will run more smoothly than before." 

Pitoyo said the space for the gates, which were built in the 1920s by the Dutch government, would be widened by a dozen meters. 

The width of a gate is about six meters, excluding the pillars. 

Included in the Manggarai revamp is the clearing of the areas along the Ciliwung River, from the Casablanca bridge to the Manggarai sluice gate. 

Flood management expert Jan Jaap Brinkman from the Netherlands Water Research Institute (Deltares) confirmed the urgency of an additional gate in Manggarai. 

"The Manggarai gates need to be improved because they are too small. At this moment it is two gates, but it needs to be three gates," Brinkman, who is also the team leader of Flood Hazarding Mapping 2 at the Public Works Ministry, said. 

Brinkman was speaking after the signing of an agreement between Indonesia and the Netherlands in the fields of meteorology, water management, climate change and early warning systems. 

The administration is currently running flood mitigation projects in anticipation of the rainy season. 

It is now dredging 12 waterways across the city, including in Pademangan River and Mati canal (in North Jakarta), Cakung River (East Jakarta) and Grogol in West Jakarta. 

The Rp 23 billion (US$2.04 million) project is set to dredge 243,322 cubic meters of garbage out of the canals. The canals range from 467 meters to 3,533 meters long. 

The administration is also working on the East Flood Canal project, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The canal will be the primary flood control mechanism for East and North Jakarta. 

The 23.5-kilometer East Flood Canal will stretch across 11 subdistricts in East Jakarta and two subdistricts in North Jakarta. 

PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol Tbk, developer of the Ancol recreational area, is building another five submersible water pumps at its site in anticipation of floods in February. 

"We are building three new water pumps in West Ancol and two more in East Ancol to add to the existing 62 pumps; we hope they will be finished by February," Nurvita Sari, the developer's manager of property maintenance, said. 

The new and existing pumps, each able to pump 30 cubic meters of water per minute, will drain water from households in Ancol to the Ancol River. 

"After the water reaches Ancol River, it's the city's public works agency's responsibility to channel the water to Pluit and Sunter dams," she said. 

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), said that in February the sea level would rise 1.2 meters above normal levels due to a high tide, with the possibility of heavy downpours. 

YJ Harwanto, the developer's general manager of its corporate plan, said they were also raising the wave breakers, adding night shifts to watch over the water level and setting up an information board about the sea level. (fmb)

Heavy rains send more trash to Jakarta

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 01/17/2009 3:02 PM  

Heavy rains have sent more trash piling at Jakarta sluice gates, forcing the administration to deploy more personnel to clean it up. 

Eko Bahruna, head of the city's sanitary agency, said Saturday that more more than 20,000 cubic meter of trash has piled up following heavy rain falls in the last few days. 

Eko said his office has sent hundreds of load trucks and personnel to clear the piles. The trash were taken to dump sites in Bantar Gebang, Bekasi and Pegangsaan Dua, North Jakarta. 

“The governor has told us to clean the trash immediately,” he sais as reported by kompas.com. 

The biggest pile of trash, which took 43 truck trips to move, was seen at  Kalibata Bridge in South Jakarta. South Jakarta Mayor Syahruk Effendi said around 1,800 cubic meter trash had been cleaned from Wednesday to Friday. (dre)

Reporters almost drown in line of duty

The Jakarta Post, Fri, 01/16/2009 4:41 PM  

JAKARTA: Nine reporters from Anteve and vivanews.com almost drowned after being swept away by the river while reporting on flooding in the Ciliwung River in Bukit Duri, South Jakarta. 

"Our boat capsized and became stuck under the Bukit Duri bridge after bumping into a house on the riverbank," Barkah, one of the survivors, said Wednesday. 

The water level on the Ciliwung River was almost to the base of the bridge, knocking the boat around and causing minor injuries to the nine. After their narrow escape, all were brought to the Bukit Duri Police station.JP

Cleaning up: Riverbank residents trash bad habits

Agnes Winarti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 12/23/2008 10:58 AM  

Clean and tidy. It might seem out of place in all the commotion of an area known to outsiders as a slum. But residents of the Ciliwung riverbank in South and East Jakarta are proving they can keep it clean. 

The lively Pasar Rakyat (community bazaar) features some 60 knockdown wooden stalls selling food, drinks, children's toys, shoes and slippers, clothes and even ceramics, lined up neatly along the decked-out 320-meter alley connecting four of the 12 neighboring units (RT) in the Bukit Duri slum in South Jakarta. 

"We want to show the public that people living in slums can also hold such a well-organized festival," Catholic priest Sandyawan Sumardi, from community group Sanggar Ciliwung Merdeka, told The Jakarta Post on the first day of three-day event. 

He said he hoped the administration, after seeing the bazaar, would provide a place and an opportunity for the urban poor people to improve their lives and their environment. 

"Municipal administrations in European countries and the United States, for instance, are willing to allocate space in city parks for poor people to set up a temporary market like this during weekends. I hope that can be applied here too." 

Since 2000, Sanggar Ciliwung Merdeka has fought for the improvement of the squatters' living conditions and their environment, especially in RTs 5, 6, 7 and 8 of Bukit Duri and RT 10 of Kampung Pulo in East Jakarta, stretching along the Ciliwung riverbank. 

In 2007, the group worked hand in hand with the riverbank residents to manage waste, plant trees, set up a clean water and sanitation facility, promote healthy eating for mothers and babies, build a community clinic, and work on environmental education programs. 

In December this year, a composting house built on a 200-square meter plot of land in the Kampung Pulo area, began running its four composting machines, which have a capacity of 750 kilograms each. 

Lestari, a volunteer worker at the composting house, says 200 kilograms of organic waste are collected from the five RTs daily. 

"We need to get more organic waste to meet the machine's capacity," she adds. 

"We produce more than 50 kilograms of compost every 21 days, and distribute it for free to families in the neighborhood who grow plants at home." 

Nurhayati, 48, whose husband works a low-paying job as a security guard, is one of four residents participating in the composting project. For her, the project provides extra income to help raise three of her seven children. 

"We get Rp 400,000 a month for making compost," she says. 

Shinta Yulianingsih, Sanggar Ciliwung Merdeka field coordinator, says the biggest hurdle is getting every household to stick to the waste-sorting process. "We have to keep reminding people because it is a matter of changing habits," she says.

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.

Dutch-made floating bulldozers to dredge city canals

The Jakarta Post | Fri, 11/14/2008 8:49 PM  |  Jakarta 

The city administration plans to dredge two urban waterways using equipment from the Netherlands to mitigate flooding in the city. 

Peter Vroege, team leader from the Jakarta Flood Management Pilot Dredging Project, said the equipment would be dispatched in two narrow and shallow waterways, the Mati and Pademangan canals in North Jakarta. 

He said the dredging machines, dubbed floating bulldozers, would dredge the waterways for three months, from Nov. 17 to February. 

"Before we hand over the equipment to the city, we will train public works officials so they are able to operate the equipment on other waterways," he said. 

The equipment is valued at 700,000 euros (US$890,000).

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)

Hazardous industrial waste lacks monitoring

Triwik Kurniasari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta    

Environmental impact assessments (Amdal) are still not being enforced, with rivers becoming increasingly polluted while many industries do not properly treat their waste, environmentalists said Wednesday. 

Industrial firms believe Amdal is only an administrative formality, said Hasbi Azis from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment's (Walhi) Jakarta chapter. 

"It (Amdal) has not been applied properly. Only 10 percent of 200 industrial companies in Jakarta have waste treatment facilities," Hasbi said during a dialogue at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) office on Jl. Thamrin, Central Jakarta. 

"Besides that, there are 54 factories expelling hazardous waste with no Amdal. The factories dump their waste into the city's rivers. And this doesn't count the waste dumped by hospitals in the city," he said. 

According to the Walhi research division, 90 percent of hospitals in Jakarta dispose of their waste at public dumps, he said. 

"This kind of waste should be separated from other waste because it is very dangerous. The administration should provide a special dump and treatment facility for hospital waste so it doesn't harm people," he said. 

Hasbi also criticized the Jakarta Environmental Management Board (BPLHD) and the State Ministry for the Environment for not taking strict action against industrial firms disobeying the environment law. 

"BPLHD has the authority to take stern measures against alleged polluters who do not build waste treatment facilities." 

Hermien Roosita from the State Ministry for the Environment said there had been many Amdal violations, but it was not easy to take the cases to court. 

"It is the police who investigate and take the cases to the attorney's offices. If they stop the investigation, there is nothing we can do nothing about it," Hermien said. 

She said the ministry was also drafting a revision of the 2007 law on environmental management to improve law enforcement. 

"In the draft, both industrial firms and officers face sanctions if they disobeyed the law on Amdal. 

"Industrialists risk a six-month jail sentence and Rp 1 billion (US$94,000) fine, while the officers face a minimum two-year jail sentence and a Rp 100 million fine," Hermien said. 

"We hope the revised law will effectively solve disputes over environmental pollution between industrial firms, the administration and residents." 

Walhi faces obstacles every time it tries to resolve environmental disputes at court, Hasbi said. 

"We receive more than 100 environmental complaints every year, but we fail to win the cases. We have difficulty obtaining evidence," he said. 

"Once we were in court and the prosecutor nullified our evidence, including photographs and video recordings, by saying it was not enough to prove the allegation," he said, adding that there was a lack of environmental understanding among law enforcers. 

"The government should hold routine training on the environment for officers at district attorney's offices and the attorney general's office."