Drought-Stricken Makassar Residents Digging More Wells in Search of Water

The Jakarta Globe, Dzal Gibran

Makassar. Prolonged drought due to a delayed onset of the rainy season in Indonesia has forced residents of Makassar, South Sulawesi, to dig more artesian wells as water supplied by the city has run low.

“If you’re lucky, you get water in the first drill, but in most cases we strike water on the third try,” Yohanis, a resident of Bumi Tamalanrea Permai housing complex, said over the weekend.

Yohanis said most houses in the compound have gone without running water and that many wells there have also dried up, forcing residents to drill new ones. Residents usually drill in several locations before finding water due to the poor equipment being used, he said.

He added that the drilling fee for one well was Rp 1.8 million ($190), excluding the fee to rent a vacuum.

Residents who have wells complained that the water is yellowish, forcing them to strain it before using it for cooking or laundry.

“We don’t know if that kind of water is good for consumption or not, but we have no choice but to use it,” said Basir, who lives on the same block as Yohanis.

Other residents have to line up to buy water from street vendors. A 20-liter jerry can of water sells for as much as Rp 500.

The residents said some companies have offered water at the price of Rp 80,000 for 100 liters, which most residents consider too high.

“That’s the way it is here,” said Andi, another resident at the housing complex, who has lived there since 1992.

The city tap water company, the PDAM Makassar, said it has sold water to local residents using trucks, but residents said they never received the water.

“Every day a PDAM truck passes by here, but the driver tells us that someone else has ordered the water,” Basir said.

Suwarjo, a spokesman for the South Sulawesi Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, said temperatures in Makassar had reached 38 degrees celsius, making the city one of the hottest areas in the country.

At this time last year, the temperature was between 30 degrees and 35 degrees.

The heat has been caused by absorption of the sun’s direct irradiation on the earth’s surface, he said.

The weather agency predicted temperatures would remain high for another week or two.

“The extreme high temperatures should not have happened. But due to El Nino the rainy season will start very late,” Suwarjo said.

He said the weather agency predicted the rainy season would start at the end of November and peak in early January to February. The rainy season is predicted to have no impact on the sea waves, so that marine activities should be able to continue as usual.

“The agency predicts that in the rainy season the waves will remain relatively safe. But people should be careful when there is heavy rain combined with strong winds,” he said.

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.