Overview of Jakarta Water- Related Environmental Challenges

Abstract

Jakarta, located on the northwest coast of Java, is the economical, political and cultural capital of Indonesia. The Metropolitan area, Jabodetabek (Jakarta-Bogor-DepokTanggerang-Bekasi), is the 6th largest metropolitan area in the world with a little under 20 million people. About 9 million people live in Jakarta it self, in an area of 660 km2. 13 Rivers intersect the city and every year floods occur in Jakarta. Widespread flooding occurred in 1996, 2002 and 2007, inundating up to 40% of the city. Increasing population pressure and soil subsidence (10 cm/year or more) of areas already under mean sea level lead to an autonomous increase of flood risk. In addition, subsidence causes the Jakarta sea defense to sink below critical levels and has major impact on the quality of live in the city. Additionally, all the rivers in Jakarta relatively are heavily polluted. Rivers in Jakarta have been monitored on a regular basis, and consistently show high BOD readings. The sources of BOD in Jakarta’s River system originate from industrial and other waste water, solid waste, and domestic sewage. High pollution levels cause treatment costs to increase. All surface waters crossing Jakarta are heavily polluted by gray water from households, commercial buildings, together with discharges from industries, pesticide and fertilizer run-off from agricultural land, solid waste, and fecal matter from overflowing or leaking septic tanks. As summary, Jakarta faces common environmental problems like other megacities do. However, the variation of capacity of the city municipality that makes the different results. While several improvements have been made, the environmental problems have become really huge. Without proper plans, and coordination and actions for environmental management, Jakarta will have difficulties to sustain for the future.