Mega project brings water from south to Beijing

Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-12-28

The water arrives at Tuancheng Lake's open channel in Beijing, Dec. 27
(Photo/Xinhua)

The water from a south China river flowed into Beijing on Saturday after a journey of over 1,200 kilometers along the South-to-North Water Diversion Project.

It took 15 days for the water to arrive in Beijing from its source — the Hanjiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze, China's largest waterway.

Saturday's delivery marks the completion of the middle route's first stage, construction of which began exactly 12 years ago.

The project will have significant economic, social and environmental impacts, said E Jingping, chief of the State Council's South-to-North Water Diversion Project Commission Office.

Next year, about 800 million cubic meters of water will be sent to Beijing from the south.

Beijing, on average, consumes 3.6 billion cubic meters of water annually and the project will eventually deliver 1 billion cubic meters of water to Beijing. The water resource per capita in Beijing is one eightieth of the world average.

The project will alleviate the pressure Beijing faces to meet demand, said Sun Guosheng, director of the project's Beijing office, but the project would not completely solve Beijing's water issues. Additional measures must be taken.

Dean of Beijing Normal University's College of Water Sciences, Xu Xinyi, said Beijing and other places along the project's route must promote water conservation in industry, agriculture and at the municipal-administration level.

Similarly, Zhang Tong, deputy chief of the Beijing Institute of Water, urged the city to place restrictions on industries that require large quantities of water.

Beijing mayor Wang Anshun promised citywide water conservation promotion efforts to limit wastefulness.

The middle route's first stage starts at the Danjiangkou Reservoir in the central province of Hubei.

The middle route will supply 9.5 billion cubic meters of water annually to northern regions, including the cities of Beijing and Tianjin, and provinces of Henan and Hebei.

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"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much.

Water

We've told you that one of the greatest natural resources of the planet, which is going to shift and change and be mysterious to you, is fresh water. It's going to be the next gold, dear ones. So, we have also given you some hints and examples and again we plead: Even before the potentials of running out of it, learn how to desalinate water in real time without heat. It's there, it's doable, and some already have it in the lab. This will create inexpensive fresh water for the planet. 

There is a change of attitude that is starting to occur. Slowly you're starting to see it and the only thing getting in the way of it are those companies with the big money who currently have the old system. That's starting to change as well. For the big money always wants to invest in what it knows is coming next, but it wants to create what is coming next within the framework of what it has "on the shelf." What is on the shelf is oil, coal, dams, and non-renewable resource usage. It hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, has it? Now you will see a change of free choice. You're going to see decisions made in the boardrooms that would have curled the toes of those two generations ago. Now "the worst thing they could do" might become "the best thing they could do." That, dear ones, is a change of free choice concept. When the thinkers of tomorrow see options that were never options before, that is a shift. That was number four. ….”

Dutch Unveil Latest Plan in War Against the Sea: a Massive Sandbar

Jakarta Globe, Nicolas Delaunay, December 26, 2011

The wind, waves and ocean currents, it is hoped, will drive the man-made
 peninsula of sand landward to replenish the coast of the Netherlands. 
(AFP Photo)   

          

Kijkduin, Netherlands. In its age-old war to keep back the sea, low-lying Netherlands has dumped sand onto a surface larger than 200 football fields just off the coast — and will wait for nature to do the rest.

The wind, waves and ocean currents are the next “engineers” in this innovative project that will see the transferred sand — all 20 million cubic meters of it — driven landward to form a natural barrier against the North Sea’s relentless onslaught. The elements have started moving the tip of the bar, which already almost touches land at low tide.

Over a period of 15 to 20 years, the sand will wash toward the coast, reinforcing beaches and existing sand dunes that help protect the Netherlands, more than a quarter of which lies below sea level.

“Under natural circumstances, the Dutch coast would erode away slowly,” said Leo Linnartz, an ecology expert who advised the project’s developers on behalf of the World Wide Fund for Nature. Without reinforcing fragile shores, floods would eventually be inevitable, he said.

Over the decades, the Dutch have developed world-renowned expertise in the field of hydro-engineering, notably in constructing dams, dikes and bridges.

Around 17,500 kilometers of embankment have already been built along its coast and rivers.

The new project was conceived by a group of experts commissioned by the Dutch government to help solve the country’s ongoing headache. It used dredgers to suck up ocean-floor sand 10 kilometers off the coast then dump it closer to land. Some of the huge machines were able to carry as much as 10,000 cubic meters of sand at one time.

If the experiment works, the sandbar project, situated between the seaside suburbs of Kijkduin and Ter Heijde near The Hague, will be replicated elsewhere in the country. And the system could even be exported.

“We used to do it in such a way that we used a lot of stones and concrete and things like that,” said Linnartz. “But nowadays we prefer to work together with nature, to cooperate with natural forces.”

The idea of strengthening the coastline with sand is not new, Linnartz said. But placing it off the coast and allowing nature to take its course is not only a fresh approach to the problem but less harmful to the environment than simply dumping more sand on the dunes, he said.

While traditional shoring up happens around every five years, the new plan based on the sand’s natural movement will last 15 to 20 years.

Agence France-Presse  

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Afsluitdijk, The Netherlands

Ministry eyes desalination technology to mitigate potential water crisis

The Jakarta Post,  Sun, 09/04/2011

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry has developed sea water desalination technology to convert sea water into fresh water to cope with the possibility of a water crisis.

“Making mineral water from the sea is a strategic step in anticipating the possibility of a clean water crisis in the future,” Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad said on Saturday, as reported by kompas.com.

The desalinated water could be a pivotal shift in fresh water supplies. The process could also produce salt.

According to the ministry, Indonesia has several potential locations where this technology could be developed. The areas include Nusa Penida and Gondol in Bali, Lombok Strait in West Nusa Tenggara, Biak Island in Papua and Pelabuhan Ratu in West Java.

Around 70 percent, or 5.8 million kilometers, of Indonesian territory is comprised of water.

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Dam collapse leaves East Jakarta dry

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Thu, 09/01/2011

Sixty percent of private water company PT PAM Lyonnaise (Palyja) customers have been without water since the Buaran dam in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta collapsed Wednesday night.

"The water supply will return to normal after [the damage] is fixed," Palyja spokesperson Meyritha Maryanie said on Thursday.

Palyja was negotiating for an additional water supply from Tangerang and from another private water operator, PT Aetra, she said.

However, Tangerang could supply only 10 to 20 percent of the municipality’s needs, while a permit from city water manager PT PAM Jaya was needed for PT Aetra to deliver water to East Jakarta.

"Once the permit from PAM Jaya has been issued, clean water will be immediately channeled to customers within a few hours," Meyrita added, as reported by tempointeraktif.com.

The dam collapsed after it began to leak on Wednesday night.

Buaran Dam collapse cuts water supply to 60 percent of customers

The recent collapse of the Buaran dam in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta, has cut the water supply to around 60 percent of PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) customers since midnight, the company says.

"The water supply will return to normal once [the damage] is fixed," Meyritha said.

She added that the company was seeking to supplement its water supply with water from Tangerang, and was also working with PT Aetra water company.

However, water from Tangerang may only reach 10 to 20 percent of those who need it, Meythan what is needed and a permit from city water operator PT PAM Jaya was required for PT Aetra to take over the supplying of water.

"If the permit from PAM Jaya has been issued, clean water supply will be immediately channeled to customers within a few hours," Meyrita added.

The Buaran dam wall collapsed started from a leak on Wednesday night which increasingly worsened.

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Dutchman in Kenya: drilling against drought

RNW, 6 August 2011, by Rob van Dijk

 (Foto: Robin Hutton)

             

To combat Kenya’s drought and famine, a Dutch resident wants to drill new wells, down to 100 metres, four to ten times deeper than most existing ones. “Most shallow wells have dried up. We could start drilling in two or three months.”

Wim van den Burg lives in southeast Kenya, close to the Somali border. In October and November, the “little rainy season”, there was no rain at all, the Dutchman recounts. “If we didn’t get any rain in the ‘big rainy season’ in November, I realised, we’d be in big trouble. And we are.”

No drinking water

There were a few showers in July. By then most of the corn had been scorched. A few stalks yielded shrivelled oars, far too little to feed all the hungry mouths. Worse still, many wells dried up, leaving people with nothing to drink.

Things are bound to get worse, Van den Burg fears, not just in Kenya, but across East Africa. “The next rainy season, the little one, doesn’t begin until October. Even if we get rain then, people won’t be able to harvest their crops until two or three months later.”

Deep down

Van den Burg has been working in Kenya since 1989. “We’ve dug 50 or 60 wells, each 10 to 25 metres deep. Most of them are still working. But in the remote areas the wells are dry.”

To find water, you need to drill further down, he explains. But to get to some 100 metres down you need a special drill, which costs around 60,000 euros. “Such drills also allow you to test the quality of the water, so you know if it’s worth building a well.”

Last weekend he began a drive to raise the money. Once he gets the drill, thousands of starving, thirsty people will again be able to drink and feed themselves.

More information at www.wimvandenburg.nl

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Replenishment of groundwater still low

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 06/16/2010 11:01 AM | City

Awareness among Jakartans to replenish groundwater is still low, whereas water recharge is a key to prevent flooding and land subsidence, experts say.

As long as city dwellers recharge groundwater from shallow wells, a 15- to 20-meter long drilled or hand-dug well, groundwater exploitation will have little impact on land subsidence. “The point is that you need to restore the water you have taken from underground,” Fatchy Muhammad from the Indonesian Water Society told The Jakarta Post recently.

One effective way to prevent flooding and land subsidence is by storing rainwater as much as possible by creating biopores and water reservoirs such as absorption lakes. However, education on the importance of giving back to nature, ensuring that the groundwater extraction does not exceed its recharge, is still lacking. Budiarsih, a tailor who lives in Pondok Cabe, South Jakarta, has an 18-meter shallow well standing in her backyard where she pumps water from underground to meet her household water needs.

“I never knew that using groundwater had an environmental consequence of land subsidence, nor did I know that I have to make a biopore hole to replenish the water I have taken underground,” she said.

With more than a half of Jakarta’s population still lacking access to piped water, groundwater has served as a cheap alternative resource and a solution to meet the water needs of city households. A recent study from the Bandung Institute of Technology found that the exploration of groundwater, along with pressure from high-rise buildings, mainly contributed to land subsidence in Jakarta at a rate of 10 centimeters per year.

“One thing that most people forget or don’t know is that Jakarta laid in a low, flat basin, around 40 percent below sea level in 1973,” Firdaus Ali, a graduate geology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the US, told the Post.

He said Jakarta was slowly but surely sinking; the sea would reach Jl. Hayam Wuruk, Central Jakarta, around 5 kilometers inland, making North Jakarta completely submerged within next 50 years.

Firdaus, also a board member of the Jakarta Water Supply Regulatory Body, said that while it was important to empower grassroot communities to participate in conserving and recharging groundwater, it was clearly much more important to restrict business entities from exploiting it.

“I’m worried about the use of deep wells by many business entities, such as malls and hotels as they sometimes over pump deep groundwater without replenishing it,” he said. “Big buildings are the largest contributor to groundwater extraction and land subsidence in the city.”

Many large business establishments in Jakarta dig their own wells, which can be as deep as 200 meters, as an additional water supply that water tap operators cannot meet. But they sometimes use deep groundwater instead of tap water to avoid paying high water rates of Rp 14,650 (US$1.6) per cubic meter, according to Firdaus.

The City Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD) sealed off an illegally drilled deep well in the Bukopin building in South Jakarta last year as part of its bid to enforce a bylaw on groundwater extraction.

A biopore is around a 10-centimeter wide, 1-meter deep infiltration hole that is filled with organic waste to conserve groundwater.

Kamir R. Barata, a groundwater expert from the Bogor Agriculture Institute, said biopores are easy to make, as people just need to drill through watered soil using a standardized measurement.

He said rainwater absorption into soil was an effective way to conserve water and avoid water loss caused by evaporation.

Meanwhile, NGOs such as WatSan Action Tirta Lestari Foundation have emerged to raise awareness about the plight of groundwater exploitation through water-related educational programs, including teaching some city dwellers about how to make rainwater collection systems and biopores.

“We educate them about the danger of exploiting groundwater and how to better preserve it,” the foundation’s water engineer Noni Arkendita said, adding that her team also taught groundwater users in Cilincing, North Jakarta, and Bintaro, South Jakarta, how to construct water trenches to enhance water seepage and help channel water to biopores. (tsy)

Japanese tech for cleaner RI slaughterhouses

Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 01/29/2010 10:25 AM

The government of Japan has offered a co-benefit cooperation to develop eco-friendly slaughterhouses and landfills to cope with climate change and pollution in Indonesia.

Japan would provide technology to capture emissions from slaughterhouses and landfills in Indonesia and alter them as energy sources to generate electricity for citizens.

“But the total emission cuts from projects belong to Indonesia,” Tuty Hendrawaty, deputy assistance on pollution control from the agro industry sector at the State Environment Ministry told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

She said that pilot projects would be in slaughterhouses in Palembang, South Sumatra and the landfill in Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan.

“Experts from Japan and Indonesia have conducted feasibility studies on the planned projects,” she said.

The governments of Indonesia and Japan organized a two-day workshop on co-benefit cooperation in Jakarta on Thursday, attended by officials from several provinces.

Slaughterhouses and landfills are among the major sources of water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, especially in developing countries due to poor management.

Untreated wastewater often flows into rivers, which are the main sources of clean water for the public.

Slaughterhouses and landfills also carry diseases that can be transferred to humans, while wastewater generates methane gas.

Methane is reported as far more dangerous to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

The Japanese government launched the “Cool Earth 50” initiative in 2007 to establish a global warming management framework with the long-term target of halving greenhouse gas emissions until 2050.

Japan and Indonesia signed a joint statement on environmental protection through the co-benefit approach in 2007, including the implementation of the 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle).

Since then, Indonesia produced massive campaigns on the 3R concept to reduce the size of landfills.

Data from the State Environment Ministry shows more than 60 percent out of the 170 surveyed cities in 2008 relied on poorly managed landfills.

It said that many cities only disposed around 65 percent of daily waste at the final disposal site with the remaining illegally dumped in rivers or at parks and were illegally burned.

The report said Indonesia produced a large amount of methane gas from garbage.

Producing around 45 million cubic meters of garbage annually, mostly from metropolitan cities, Indonesia may be producing around 520,000 tons of methane, the report said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has promised to cut 26 percent of emissions by 2020, of which about 6 percent of emission reduction would be from the waste sector.

Dutch help Bay Area plan for sea level rise

By Julia Scott, San Mateo County Times, 09/21/2009 05:20:10 PM PDT

A conceptual example of "tidal embracing development" in Foster City that accommodates sea level rise with a series of wetlands, a short levee with a public park behind it, and a thicker levee protecting apartment buildings. (Conceptual drawing courtesy Arcadis)

SAN FRANCISCO — How to plan for sea level rise, a still-abstract concept for many Californians, drew serious consideration from engineers, designers and urban planners from the Netherlands and the United States at a symposium Monday.

A group of government-sponsored Dutch experts presented a report with strategies to deal with sea level rise in San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta based on a year's worth of research in partnership with the Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

With 50 percent of the Netherlands below sea level, the Dutch have been perfecting flood protection for the past 600 years.

The inevitable effects of climate change in California, and how cities can adapt to them, are starting to get more attention from Bay Area planners. While no one knows exactly how sea level rise will play out 100 or 200 years from now, analysts agree that more severe and frequent floods are going to be a part of it.

Avoiding sea level rise is by now impossible. The Bay has risen 8 inches since the start of the 20th century, and scientists worldwide agree that the Bay Area in particular can expect to experience sea level rise of as much as 16 inches by midcentury and as much as 55 inches by 2100.

Extreme storms will increase annual risk of flooding from 1 percent to 100 percent if no actions are taken to protect the Bay Area shoreline, potentially endangering 270,000 residents, according to the Pacific Institute. Development along the shoreline is currently valued at $62 billion.

How to plan for a future in which some of that real estate is threatened by storm surges — for a time beyond what today's urban planners will live to see — is the crucial question, said Will Travis, executive director of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

"We're in the same position as the captain of the Titanic. By the time he looked up, it was too late — he was going to hit (the iceberg)," he said. "We need to stop trying to protect the Bay Area the way it is.

Instead, we need to design it for the way it will be in the future."

That future may involve dismantling development in some places and letting the tide take its course, according to the report. Regional leaders may decide that some areas, such as the Port of Oakland and both regional airports, are too valuable to lose and must be protected at all costs. Other areas could be transformed to incorporate rising tides into the heart of a city.

The key is to begin asking those questions now, especially as several major developments at the edge of the Bay await approval, including Treasure Island and a Cargill saltworks site in Redwood City. Those areas were singled out in the report as "hot spots" for the Bay, meaning they represent the types of development most at risk from sea level rise.

"Just as in an emergency room, making these policy decisions will be difficult," Travis said. "It may be better to abandon some places than to allow the houses to be built and then try to protect them from flooding."

Frustratingly little is known about how well protected the Bay Area is from a serious flood even now, according to the report. (Cities on the Bay are expected to prepare for a once-in-a-century flood, but the shores of the Netherlands are armored with flood gates and other equipment strong enough to withstand a once-in-10,000-year onslaught from the North Sea.)

While many of the Bay Area's most vulnerable and valuable areas are protected by federally certified levees, they were all built before planners became aware of how sea level rise would change the whole equation.

Simply building higher levees is not a silver bullet, however. The Dutch came to that conclusion in 1995 after major flooding through the country's interior estuaries made them rethink the policy of walling off every section of river. They invented a new concept, called "living with water," designed to embrace sea level rise. They raised houses and let water flow underneath them. The government bought farmland along waterways and turned it into tidal wetlands, which naturally absorb water.

"People realize we can't just raise levees forever. If something goes wrong, you have an entire city that will be flooded in an instant. Water is a fact — we need to do something about it," said David Van Raalten, project manager for the pilot project between the Netherlands and California and a principal in ARCADIS, an international engineering and consultancy firm.

Rather than propose a series of tailor-made design solutions for each Bay Area "hot spot" based on a Dutch blueprint, the report offers a new way of thinking about what types of development ought to exist in which area. Zones with high economic value might continue to fill the Bay and expand with the help of levees and sea walls. Another option, labeled "tidal embracing development," could involve urban tidal canals carved into the suburbs or parking lots that retain storm water underground.

The Dutch government has formed similar partnerships in most of the world's most vulnerable water regions, including Louisiana, Indonesia, the Yangzee Delta in China and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, with the goal of sharing expertise and learning from each other.

The Dutch government spent 120,000 euros, or $176,000, on the Bay Area pilot project and is proposing to invest another 100,000 euros for further research in California, provided the state can match the money.

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

On the banks of Ciliwung

The Jakarta Post | Wed, 04/08/2009 6:51 PM

Ghetto living: Two boys are seen sitting on a rooftop in Kampung Pulo, East Jakarta, on Wednesday as their house goes under water due to the annual flooding of Ciliwung river. Heavy rains and also water flowing from Bogor have in recent days inundate several parts of the city (JP/P.J. Leo)

Poor Drainage System in Jakarta

Wednesday, 08 April, 2009 | 14:39 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Flooding and pools of water were to be found in several places in Jakarta after heavy rains on Monday (6/4).

According to Yayat Supriatna, an expert on urban affairs from Trisakti University, the capital city’s bad drainage system was the cause.

He said the circulating system for drainage in Jakarta is unclear.

“It is not connected between micro and macro drainage channels,” Yayat told Tempo yesterday.

In addition, only 30 percent of the drainage capacity currently functions well.

Therefore, rains of medium intensity can create flooding or pools of water.

Yayat said that the government and the general public have failed in managing and maintaining the drainage system.

The flooding does not only occur in main streets but also in housing areas.

One of the housing areas that is often hit by flooding is Petogogon District in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta.

Water to this district comes not only from the overflowing Krukut river but also from the bad drainage system.

Residents whose houses are only with one storey high have to leave their houses.

Garbage is also to be found in the drains, which are often silted up.

Tarjuki, head of Water Resources Maintenance at the Jakarta Public Works Regional Office, said that drains in Jakarta could not accommodate water during heavy rains.

He explained that the drains with widths of 60 centimeters to 1 meter could only accommodate rain with an intensity of 10 millimeters per hour while the rain intensity last Monday reached 20 millimeters per hour.

Deputy of Commission B for Economy division, Ben Sitompul, said that the drainage system in Jakarta needs to be evaluated.

“Even higher places can be hit by flooding,” said Ben yesterday.

AMIRULLAH| EKA UTAMI APRILIA

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City aims to build 5m biopores this year

Triwik Kurniasari, THE JAKARTA POST, JAKARTA | Wed, 04/01/2009 11:37 AM

The city administration has set a target of creating 5 million biopores this year in five municipalities across the city in an effort to improve water retention and therefore ease the ongoing water crisis.

The City Environmental Board (BPLHD) said that the city only had 335,590 biopores, far below the recommended 76 million.

BPLHD head Peni Susanti said that the board would require developers to build the biopores in a bid to meet the target.

“The bylaw rules that every building, including malls and hotels, must have absorption wells or biopores,” Peni said, referring to the 2005 bylaw on groundwater.

She said her office was cooperating with the City Building Supervision Agency (P2B) to ensure that developers applying for building permits abide by the regulations.

“We also encourage Jakarta residents to make biopores at their homes,” Peni said.

She said that the biopores could help retain rainwater longer in the soil and therefore maintain the equilibrium of the groundwater table.

The biopore technology was introduced by a lecturer at the Bogor Agriculture Institute (IPB), Kamir Raziudin Brata, in 1976. Biopores are made with a T-shaped iron bore to create a 1-meter-deep hole in the ground with a diameter of between 10 and 30 centimeters. The hole, also containing organic waste, absorbs more rainwater and therefore allows insects and worms to live. Firdaus Ali, an environmental expert at the University of Indonesia, said biopores were not the only way to solve the city’s problem.

“Jakarta is experiencing a serious water crisis due to the massive exploitation of groundwater. Therefore, I fully support the administration’s plan to raise the ground water tax,” Firdaus said. Earlier in March, the administration announced that it would draft a bylaw to increase ground water tax in a bid to prevent exploitation and land subsidence.

The BPLHD reported that groundwater exploitation had caused land to sink about 1.2 meters. The construction of high-rise buildings also speeds up land subsidence.

The tax in wealthy residential areas will increase from Rp 525 per cubic meter to Rp 3,300, and from Rp 8,800 to Rp 23,000 in industrial areas.

“The administration can use the money to develop more sophisticated technology for water absorption... It should also impose stricter sanctions on violators,” Firdaus said.

Besides biopores, the administration has been working with the IPB in developing bio-retention technology. This method uses the chemical, biological and physical properties of plants, microbes and soils, to slow rainwater runoff and retain water.

In addition, the BPLHD reported that as of December 2008, the administration had built more than 83,000 absorption wells capable of retaining 1,154,000 cubic meters of water.

IPB tells city to use bioretention tech

Theresia Sufa and Triwik Kurniasari, THE JAKARTA POST, BOGOR/JAKARTA | Sat, 03/21/2009 10:33 AM

An expert with the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) says Jakarta’s city administration may be able to ease the water crisis in the capital city by using bioretention technology.

Bioretention technology uses the chemical, biological and physical properties of plants, microbes and soils, to slow the rainwater runoff and retain water longer in the soil.

Nana M. Arifjaya, a lecturer at the institute’s School of Forestry, said the city needed to set aside 44 percent of its land area, or around 28,902 of its 64,346 hectares, to retain groundwater with bioretention technology.

“Jakarta needs to set aside specific areas, which can act as a huge sponge absorbing rainwater and retaining it,” Nana said.

He pointed out Senayan, Pasar Minggu, Srengseng, Kebon Jeruk, Meruya, Joglo, Menteng and Pondok Indah as among the key areas the city should use to retain groundwater.

He added since most areas in the city were built-up, residents could convert small spaces across the city, such as backyards, gutters, pavements, parks, parking spaces and small alleys, to build water retention wells using the technology.

With an average precipitation of 2,000 millimeters per year, Jakarta can store up to 578.34 million cubic meters of water per year, or 1,583,655 cubic meters per day, he estimated.

“That will be more than sufficient to cater for the water needs of 7.9 million city residents,” he claimed.

“The implementation of the technology would also slow down land subsidence and seawater intrusion thanks to the well-maintained water table in the ground,” he said.

Experts have warned earlier that many parts of the city would be underwater before the year 2012. Firdaus Ali, an environmental expert at the University of Indonesia, reported land was sinking at around 10 centimeters a year on average. The city environmental management agency also confirmed land subsidence had increased due to pressure from buildings (87.5 percent) and ground water absorption (12.5 percent). More than 21 million cubic meters of groundwater was pumped out every year.

Some other experts also reported seawater intrusion, 11 to 12 kilometers from the coast. Seawater intrusion and subsidence can also cause buildings to collapse.

The city administration teamed up with the IPB last year to introduce bioretention technology to the capital.

“We’ve already built 800 wells,” Governor Fauzi Bowo said Friday.

“We will keep developing the wells throughout the city. The problem is how to involve as many as city residents in this project,” Fauzi said.

Aside from the bioretention technology, the city administration recently introduced biopores, 1-meter-deep holes bored into the ground to collect rainwater. Biopores are made by putting organic waste into soil. Insects and worms then create micropores around the waste, improving the soil’s water absorption.

Nana said Jakarta alone needs more than 125,000 bioretention wells.

If the technology is used to tackle flooding, he said, it should be implemented across Greater Jakarta and include 261,622 wells spread around Bogor, Tangerang, Bekasi and Depok. He estimated the costs of building those wells would reach Rp 1 trillion.

City to turn cemeteries into parks, attractions

The Jakarta Post, Fri, 03/13/2009 2:53 PM

 

JAKARTA: The city parks and burial agency plans to turn cemeteries across the capital into green areas by planting more trees in these areas.

 

"We intend to do away with the idea of cemeteries being spooky places. We want to turn cemeteries into *real' parks, with lots of trees and even water fountains," agency head Ery Basworo said on Thursday.

 

"The trees will add to our green spaces, and are an important way to absorb more rainwater.

 

"We are still working on a master plan, including maps and designs," Ery said.

 The agency would work with private companies under the Corporate Social and Responsibility (CSR) program to plant trees in 96 cemeteries across the city.

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.

Water from Surabaya Rivers is Undrinkable

Wednesday, 21 January, 2009 | 14:18 WIB

 

TEMPO Interactive, Surabaya:An official from the East Java governor’s office, Setia Purwaka, said the quality of the river water in Surabaya is undrinkable. The water quality standard has failed to qualify for category I, which is consumable. “The current condition is nowhere near that category,” Setia said following the launch of ‘Stop Surabaya River Pollution’ program at Jasa Tirta I company in Surabaya yesterday.

 

One examples, he said, can be seen from the biological oxygen demand (BOD) content in the water. In potable water, the BOD level should not exceed 2 milligram per liter. However, the BOD level in Surabaya rivers has reached 5 milligram per liter.

 

East Java Environmental Agency chief, Dewi Putriatni, said there are currently 50 – 60 big companies along the rivers of Gresik, Sidoarjo and on towards Surabaya. “Most of these companies do not have waste management facilities,” she said.

 

ANANG ZAKARIA