4 MANAGEMENT

Management of groundwater in both cities from the legal point of view is based on:

• Law No. 11 of 1974 on Water Resources
• Government Regulation No. 22 of 1982 on Water Resources Management
• Regulation of Minister of Mines and Energy No. 02.P/101/M.PE/1994 on Management of Ground-water.

As stipulated on this regulation, management of groundwater is defined as all efforts that covers inventory, regulating, developing, licencing, controlling, and supervising in the frame of groundwater conservation.

• Decree of Director General of Geology and Mineral Resources No. 005.K/10/DDJG/1995 on Guidance of the Implementation of Management of Groundwater.

Referring to the above legislation, both cities have groundwater regulation which is approved by their government and their local parliament respectively.

To comply with the above legislation, the Governor of Greater Jakarta and the Governor of West Java issues licence for groundwater abstraction within their respective area following technical recommendations from the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

Although a series of groundwater regulations have been published and implemented, there is clear evidence in both cities that the groundwater resources are suffering degradation both in terms of quantity and quality, as shown on Table 1.

 

Table 1 Degradation of groundwater resources

	Jakarta	Bandung
Lowering of groundwater head	2 - 4.6 m year-1	2 - 4 m year-1
Changes of quality	Yes - sea water intrusion - waste water (domestic and industry)	Yes - waste water (domestic and industry)
Changes of recharge - discharge pattern	Yes - downward leakage almost in the entire basin	Yes - downward leakage almost in the entire basin
Land sub-sidence	Yes 34 cm year-1	No evidence

 

The degradation in both cities is due in part to groundwater mining which has occurred, presumably during the last decade.

Groundwater management requires a full understanding of the groundwater system; groundwater monitoring and modelling are valuable tools in this respect.

In both cities, targets for maximum groundwater abstraction have been set to avoid further deterioration of water quality and other negative impacts. Groundwater levels are monitored with continuous recorders in some wells. Surveys of water quality are undertaken annually.

Despite awareness of the problems and the attempts to arrest degradation continued deterioration of the resource occurs.

Among the major problem which appear to be the main causes of continued resource degradation are: :

1. The need of water demand is continuously increasing while water resources is becoming more scarce.

This situation to be impetus the management to demand management approach rather than supply management which is used so far. By demand approach groundwater resources will be used based on the real capacity of the aquifers and water usage will be optimized. Need to restrict demand to match the capacity of the aquifer rather than simply increase supply.

2. Highly reliant upon groundwater resources while other water resources are inadequate.

For both cities groundwater resources supplies nearly 60% of their water demand. Management strategy should be to reduce groundwater abstraction and to enhance the usage of surface water resources. Conjungtive use of groundwater and surface water should be instigated where possible in both cities.

3. Increase in population and changes in land use.

The high population density in both cities creates a demand for land for housing and for industry. As a consequence permeable soils are replaced by impermeable concrete cover whilst the demand for water rises.

Further small scattered natural lakes which occurred in many areas in the south of Jakarta have now has been infilled and built upon. Nearly 70% of these natural lakes have disappeared. The role of these lakes as retention basins to protect Jakarta from floods and to provide opportunities for excessive surface water to infiltrate to the sub surface has been lost.

4. Partial and sectoral management rather than holistic and integrated management.

Although groundwater management is the responsibility of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, other agencies are also involved in groundwater management. As stipulated by law, groundwater and surface water are managed separately. The Ministry of Public Works is responsible for the surface water, while licencing for water abstraction is the responsibility of. the Governor. This situation ignores how surface water and groundwater are interrelated and that one can impact upon the other. In addition duplication or effort between the two ministries can occur.

Since groundwater is only a part of the hydrologic cycle, groundwater management needs to consider total water resources and should involve management of the recharge areas, land usage, river basin and even the social behaviour related to water use.

Both Mining Bureaus in Jakarta and Bandung are responsible in management of groundwater of their respective areas. However, it seems that integrated management still needs to be enhanced.

5. Weakness of law enforcement.

The law, stipulates that any violation of groundwater regulation will result in the offenders being prosecuted or penalized. However, both in Jakarta and Bandung, offenders are rarely penalised. Provided the offenders pay for the excess water abstracted they are unlikely to be prosecuted.

The revenues which are collected from groundwater tariff are regarded as local revenues and used to finance regional development rather than utilised exclusively for groundwater conservation efforts.

Further, the regulations relating groundwater and its use is still largely ignored.

6. Low awareness of groundwater users to the sustainability of groundwater.

Unfortunately too many people have an inadequate understanding of groundwater resources and this has led to inappropriate development of groundwater. It is true that groundwater is a renewable resource, but the time required for renewal is much greater than for surface water. For example, the recharge to the deep aquifers beneath Jakarta and Bandung takes many hundreds of years.

Referring to the meaning of management as defined in Regulation of Minister of Mines and Energy No. 02.P/101/M.PE/1994, the problems as described above are actually a reflection of that function of management, which are planning, organizing, actuating, and controlling, has not yet been properly conducted.

This page hosted by   Get your own Free Home Page