Kafil Yamin, Jakarta – Long stretches of parched paddy fields and vegetable farms lining the road are a testament to the drought that has hit Java and other parts of Indonesia. The arid landscape through Cikarang industrial estate, 60 kilometers south of Jakarta, is dotted with lamb and cattle eating dry grass here and there, the rivers having dried up long ago. The wells are empty.
"Life is really hard these days. Water supplies are very short. We have to work very hard to get a few buckets of water for cooking, drinking and washing," said Usman, an angkot (small inter-city public transport vehicle) driver.
Usman said that although PAM Lynnaise Jaya, the local water company, services his house, water only reaches his place in tiny amounts, which means they have to adopt a strict rationing system. "Every morning we share the limited water there is for bathing as I, my two daughters and two boys have to get ready go to work. It's impossible for them to go to their offices without taking a bath. Very often we don't set aside a portion of water for cooking. We just have to buy a bottle of drinking water and have breakfast somewhere on the way to the office," he said.
By local standards Usman and his family can consider themselves lucky. In Cibarusah district, the water has totally run out. Some residents are forced to roam around the district pushing carts in search of water. "They come from villages all around this area," said Aryanti, a local resident, pointing to a rare spot where people have lined up to get PAM-supplied water. "They rely on this water supply because in their homes they don't have any water at all."
Aryanti, who runs a shop near the popular water spot, said the water does not flow regularly. "It comes once every three days, or, in the case of an emergency, we call the PAM office and then the water flows," Aryanti said.
Just next to Aryanti's shop are three school buildings. So strong is the smell of urine from the school toilets that visitors entering the buildings need to cover their noses when entering. "There is not enough water to wash the smell away," said Asep Suparman, a Cibarusah Junior High School security guard. "Only when water flows freely from the spot, do we have enough water to wash the bathroom." Locals said they have never been through this kind of predicament before. "It has only started happening last month, when the dry season started," said Aryanti, explaining that she puts aside an extra 150,000 Indonesian rupiah (US$16) a month to buy water.
Hectares upon hectares of dry rice fields on the outskirts of Jakarta have been abandoned as farmers leave the land in search of work, mostly as seasoned construction workers in the capital. "Many people are leaving the village. Most go to Jakarta to find jobs. In Jakarta, they might find jobs, but also the same situation with water," she said.
All around Greater Jakarta the onset of the dry season has pushed people to dig deep into their wells. "I got water only after digging 22 meters deep," said Maman, a resident of nearby Rawabuntu village, in Tangerang.
In some areas, such as Tanjung Pasir village, locals can no longer deepen their wells because even though they get water, it is acidic in taste. As a relief measure, PAM water is collected in big drums and distributed around the village. "We made an agreement to use the PAM water only for cooking and drinking. As for washing, we use the acid water from our wells," said Hasan, a local resident. Meanwhile in Sinarjati village, Bekasi, local residents have no choice but to use the brown-colored water from one of the few flowing rivers in the district for washing.
Greater Jakarta's capacity to supply its 11 million people with a regular and safe water supply in times of crisis is being tested, and locals from all around say it is failing that crucial test.
PAM's ability to rise to the occasion is also in doubt, with residents here saying that they got less water in September than in August. "This is because we got a reduced supply from the Jatiluhur reservoir," said Bernard Lavronge, a commissioner of PAM. "The water volume in the reservoir is not short, but farmers along the canal take water for their farms much more than usual. They do it because of the current drought."
Environmental expert Mas Achmad Santosa said the dry season is not entirely to blame, as warnings from the Meteorology and Geophysics Bureau (BMG) have long said that the area will face a severe water crisis in the next 10 years. "But the government has never paid serious attention to it," he said.
The BMG's forecast is based on the fact that both residents and industries have been vigorously exploiting the ground water at unsustainable levels in recent times. "In Jakarta alone, 9 million cubic meters of water is taken every second. The exploitation will intensify in the next 10 years. Around 33 billion cubic meters of water will then be taken every second," said Achmad Syafruddin, former chairman of the Indonesian Forum for Environment, Walhi.
He said the Jakarta administration should have anticipated this and countered it with a set of comprehensive policies. "Had they ruled that residents were not allowed to dig deeper than 12 meters and industries no deeper than 100 meters, then things would not be as bad as they are now," he said.
He said Walhi had recommended this water-usage plan six years ago but the government failed to respond.