Property development in and around the Greater Bandung basin has led to the disappearance of numerous water sources in the area.
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Kompas/Benediktus Krisna Yogatama
Members of the Citarum River Improvement Task Force clear water hyacinth and mosses on Sunday (28/1) at Sisanti Lake in Tarumajaya village, Kertasari district, Bandung regency, West Java. The overgrowth of water hyacinths and mosses has reduced the function and span of the lake, which is located upstream of the Citarum River.
BANDUNG, KOMPAS – Property development in and around the Greater Bandung basin has led to the disappearance of numerous water sources in the area. As a result, the local people suffer drought in the dry season and floods and landslides in the rainy season.
Among the areas where natural springs have been destroyed as a result of property development is Mekarsaluyu village in Cimenyan district, Bandung regency. North Bandung People’s Alliance head Aceng Satyadarmawan said that only seven of 15 springs in the area were still flowing today.
“The other eight have been cut off because of property development,” Aceng said in an interview at his home on Monday (29/1/2018) in Mekarsaluyu village.
He said that 15 natural springs were still in the area prior to 2000. However, because of the property boom in the area, the number of springs has fallen to seven today. The dried-up springs were dredged and converted into new neighborhoods.
The loss of the natural springs has caused difficulties among local communities in obtaining clean water during the dry season. The water debit in the remaining seven water springs is not as high as it used to be. This is because the region’s rainwater catchment have been either deforested or converted into new neighborhoods. This has also prevented new springs from forming.
Conditions are also difficult during the rainy season. The areas of springs that have been cut off are prone to landslides during heavy rains. The most disastrous landslide occurred in April 2016in the area of the former Sacawana spring in Ciosa hamlet, Mekarsaluyu village. At the time, earth and debris slid down 1 kilometer from the hilltop. Fortunately, no house was damaged and no one was killed.
“Water will always find a natural course. Therefore, areas of former springs are always prone to landslides,” Aceng said.
The falling number of springs has had a wider impact. The 15 original springs in Mekarsaluyu village used to flow into the Cidurian River and eventually into the Citarum River. The springs’ decline has decreased the water debit flowing into the Citarum.
Many areas have seen environmental damage as a result of converting land into new neighborhoods that have involved cutting off natural springs. Data from the water resource research and development center at the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry’s directorate general for water resources shows that 300 water springs existed in 2009 in the Greater Bandung basin (comprising Bandung regency, Bandung city, West Bandung regency and Cimahi city). Six years later, only 140 springs remained in the basin.
As a result, the Citarum River’s water debit became unstable. From its normal water debit of 41 cubic meters per second, the water debit increases to 578 cubic meter per second during the rainy season, causing floods. Meanwhile, during the dry season, the river’s water debit falls to only 2.7 cubic meters per second, and droughts often hit communities along the Citarum River.
West Java executive director Dadan Ramdan of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) said that efforts must be made to control the conversion of land into new residential areas, and that converted lands must be reforested to enable the natural springs to return.
“The point is, let’s allow water flow where it is supposed to flow,” Dadan said.
Environmental and Forestry Ministry records show that 53,000 hectares of the 689,998.47 hectares in the Citarum River’s watershed are in critical condition.
The ministry’s director general for watershed and protected forest control, Hilman Nugroho, said that this critical watershed area could only be restored through reforestation.
He said in 2018, the ministry would plant between 400 and 1,100 trees per hectare in 2,500 hectares of land and forests in the Citarum watershed.
