Posted 13 April 2006 @ 14:45
JAKARTA, 13 April 2006 - In the not-so-distant future, the murky waters of the Ciliwung River will flow clean and bright -- and be good enough to drink. Or that is what the government envisions in an ambitious, long-term plan that will upgrade the quality of water in the notoriously polluted river. It also plans to clear the riverbanks of unlicensed residences, who are blamed for the bulk of pollution.
In the master plan, the 117-kilometer-long river, traversing West Java and Jakarta provinces, is expected to be able to be used as an alternative source of potable water in the next 20 years. The Environment Ministry is drafting the first-ever presidential regulation on the Ciliwung River that is expected to take effect in June. "We want to upgrade the quality of water at Ciliwung River from upstream to downstream areas every five years," Edy Nugroho Santoso, head of river affairs at the Ministry of Environment told The Jakarta Post.
Edy said the pollution of the river, spanning 347 square kilometers, was mainly due to presence of illegal occupants of the riverbanks. "They use riverbanks to build houses or villas which damage the water catchment areas, and most of them dump their waste into the river," he said. In Bogor, at least 11 percent of 960 hectares of riverbank have been converted into residential areas. Many poultry farms along upstream areas dump their waste straight into the river.
"The regulation will require each administration to examine the main sources of the pollution in their respective areas," Edy said. "Each administration will be responsible to stop the pollution, to avoid further impact of the pollution and to clean the river of waste." In the next five years, the Bogor administration must study the pollution to determine if it originated from poultry, industrial or agriculture operations along the areas of Ciawi, Cisarua, Sukaraja and Bogor city.
The Jakarta administration will set up monitoring points at places such as Manggarai in South Jakarta, Central Jakarta's Kwitang and Gunung Sahari to identify sources of waste. Each administration also would be responsible to relocate illegal residents from the riverbanks. The regulation also stipulated the local administration would compensate local communities for maintaining clean water and water sources in the river.
The Jakarta administration has long complained about the quality of riverwater from upstream tributaries, which also are considered the main source of flooding in the capital. There are 13 rivers in the capital. Data from Jakarta Environmental Management Agency showed 77 percent of riverwater was polluted in 2005, an increase from 71 percent the previous year. It also said Jakarta suffered a water deficit of 36 million cubic meters per year from total demand of 400 million cubic meters.
|
'Latest news' feed