Impacts of Urban and Industrial Development on Groundwater, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia^*)

by : Soetrisno S.^**)

 

Background

Bandung is the capital of West Java Province and has a population about 2.5 million (1995), is surrounded by several medium sized towns which formed the Greater Bandung, and has total population about 3.5 million.

The Greater Bandung lies in the catchment area of the upper Citarum river and is surrounded by range of hills and volcanoes, some of which are still active, formed the inter-montane basin, and has an area of about 2250 km². The central part of the basin, where most of which occupied by urban and industrial areas, is a plain measuring 40 km East-West and 30 km North-South (Fig. 1).

The mean annual precipitation in the basin, depending on the altitude, is between 1900 - 2200 mm. In the western part of the basin the mean annual prcipitation is about 1500 mm/a and in the higher parts of the volcanoes about 3500 mm/a.

The traditional economic basis of the Greater Bandung area is agriculture, intensive irrigatied rice farming in the floodplain and rain-fed cultivation of vegetables in the hills. However, due to rapid urbanisation, conforming to the growth of industries, and rise in its population, the economic basis has shifted to industry and services. This affected to the land use of the area from open land or rain-fed and irrigated paddy field to housing complexes, business districts, and industrial areas. Comparing between the land use map of 1971 and actual situation, it is estimated that for nearly three decades, thousands hectares of land in the Greater Bandung has changed its usage.

This land use conversion certainly has an impact on groundwater recharge. In another side the urban and industrial development have increased the demand of water supply, where most of which relied on groundwater resources.

This paper attempts to discuss impacts of both urban and industrial development on groundwater, and efforts to overcome or minimize the impacts, in order to keep the groundwater resosurces in Bandung sustainable.