Water Deficit in Indonesia (Problem - Solution)

Water deficit is a current serious environmental problem in my home country, Indonesia, which first occurred 13 years ago. Serious step still has not been taken by the government as they think that this problem is still invisible in this country as a whole.

Statistics from Indonesia’s Environment observer says that supply of water in 2003 was 416.7 billion cubic meters more than demanded and by 2020 the supply will be around 407.6 billion cubic meters more than demanded. From these data, no one can see water deficit in Indonesia as a whole. But, if you see the detailed statistic for Java and Bali which have more than half of people in Indonesia says that supply of water in 2003 reached 25.3 billion cubic meters while demand was 38.1 billion cubic meters. Deficit of 134 billion cubic meters will be very likely to happen in Java by 2010. From these detailed statistics, the deficit is really visible and serious action is really needed to prevent any worse condition.

Actually, pollution to water and unavailability of clean water storage are the ones that cause this deficit. There are supposedly some good ‘engineering solutions’ for this problem. The government can build clean water storages in Java so that rainwater can be collected more effectively than depends only on forest. Water processing using is also important to clean polluted water and this can save a huge amount of water and can be used as supply water for people.

References

Water Deficit in Indoensia. (2007, November 29). Retrieved February 19, 2008, from http://www.thejakartapost.com/yearender/nat09.asp