1 BACKGROUND

Water is essential for life, without water is not possible. Therefore this gift of God should be managed properly for the benefit of mankind.

As stipulated in article (3) Paragraph 33 of the Indonesian Constitution of 1945, "Land and water and natural riches contained therein belong to and are controlled by the state and are to be used for the benefit of the people", therefore groundwater in Indonesia must be used to both meet the water demand and to the benefit of the people.

In Indonesia, groundwater resources, primarily shallow groundwater, have been developed for centuries. Groundwater from deep aquifers, however, was first developed in the mid nineteenth century, following the successful deep well drilling in 1848 at Prins Hendrik fort, one of the Dutch fortresses in Batavia (now Jakarta). Since then, deep groundwater has become one source of drinking water for several towns in Java. The Government of Dutch East Indies at that time accepted the need to manage groundwater and accordingly put into effect a series of water regulations for the islands of Java and Madura.

During the late 20^th century as Indonesia began to develop; the populous cities especially in Java which serve as centres for service and manufacturing, industries, education, and tourism, grew rapidly. The demand for water, also increased and matched the population and economic growth. Indonesia is highly reliant upon groundwater to meet this increasing demand for water; unfortunately degradation of groundwater both in terms of quantity and quality is apparent especially in the cities of Jakarta and Bandung. Both cities use groundwater to supply the majority of their water supply.

This paper presents Jakarta and Bandung as a comparative case study, describes the groundwater management problems experienced and the efforts to solve them.

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