Indonesian weather agency warns of harmful acid rains

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 23 Jun 10;

Contrary to the clean look in rainwater pouring the country’s land, the weather agency finds most of the rainwater contains harmful pollutions that are feared to harm environment and affect human health.

The weather agency categorized the polluted rainwater as acid rains with acidity scale having gone down the tolerable level of 5.6.

A report by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) shows acidity level of the rainwater, measured by potential for hydrogen (pH), in Jakarta, Bogor (West Java), Pontianak (West Kalimantan) and Manado (North Sulawesi) was among the lowest in the country.

“The sharp decline of the pH level of rainwater has hit most areas in Indonesia with the worst was recorded in big cities,” Edvin Aldrian, BMKG’s climate change and air quality unit head, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The data says acidity level of the rainwater in Jakarta was 4.52, Manado with 4.22, Pontianak was 4.29, while the rain city of Bogor was 4.40 last year.

The pH measures the amount of acid in rainwater with the scale of 0-14. The normal rainwater has a pH of 5.6. The lower scale of pH, the worse is rainwater quality.

The BMKG issued annual report of acidity level of the rainwater.