Sinking Jakarta to halt extraction of groundwater

Firms that extract water have to pump it back into the ground
Salim Osman, Straits Times 24 Apr 08;

JAKARTA - JAKARTA'S government is about to throw the sinking city a life raft in hopes of keeping it afloat.

City officials plan to introduce legislation to curtail the extraction of groundwater, said to be a prime culprit behind the problem.

A study by the World Bank released last week warned that much of the Indonesian capital would be underwater by 2025. However, three buildings in central Jakarta have already been affected.

One of them is an annexe to the country's first shopping centre, Sarinah Plaza, a landmark built in the 1963 Sukarno era. It is tilting and an order to demolish it has been issued.

The head of the building unit for Jakarta's provincial government, Hari Sasongko, said that the main building appeared to be intact.

'But we are not taking any chances, we have asked the Sarinah building management to install a manometer to ascertain whether the building is really tilting to one side,' he said. 'If it does, we will declare the building unfit and order evacuation.' A manometer is a device to measure pressure.

Jakarta city officials and the Sarinah's building consultant yesterday agreed to monitor the building's stability every two weeks for the next six months.

A team of geologists from the Bandung Institute of Techology (IPB) told Media Indonesia daily that a study showed Jakarta had subsided by about 2m in 25 years, mostly in the city centre where Sarinah is located.

The team blamed it partly on the extraction of groundwater by residents and building owners in the city of 14 million.

Yesterday Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said: 'We are drafting by-laws to restrict the extraction of groundwater. Companies which extract it would have to inject the water back into the ground.'

He was speaking at a luncheon organised by the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club.

'We hope by having a by-law and strict control of the extraction of groundwater, we would be able to deal with the problem,' he said.

Deep wells have been drilled by factories, hotels and at wealthy residents' homes to bypass the city's water grid.

The Governor admitted that some of them did this because of the inadequate supply of water by two companies which have the concessions for it.

'We are trying to find a third company,' he added.

Another factor for the city's sinking feeling is that 40 per cent of its land area is below sea level. That has led to perennial flooding, especially during high tides.

In February, the toll road leading to Jakarta's international airport was cut off by flooding, causing major disruptions to flight schedules for many hours.

Environmentalist group Walhi welcomed the latest moves to address the city's watery woes.

Its director, Selamet Daroyani, said that quick action was needed as his studies had shown that the prime Jalan Sudirman-Jalan Thamrin area that includes Sarinah Plaza had sunk by 10cm in just 10 years.

The World Bank study also blamed the city's over-development for the looming crisis.