The Picture is the polluted Citarum River taken at the upstream of Bandung City. Citarum river is the longest river in a small island of Java, Indonesia. Although the length is less than 200 km, it has 3 large reservoirs, ie. Saguling, Cirata, and Jatiluhur. The reservoirs were built to mainly generate electricity and irrigate paddy fields. The reservoirs are very important as there are two extreme seasons, i.e. rainy season and dry season. During rainy season, almost 3000 mm height of rain falls, while during dry season only 300 mm. The situation is getting worse as the island is very populated with 120 million people on 100 x 1000 km of the area. It means that there is almost no forest or at least very narrow area. Any vecant land is used for extending agriculture, housing, and industry. Soil erosion is incredibly high started from the upstream. Moreover, effluents from industries and domestics solid waste and wastewater are freely flows to the river systems. Excessive feeding to fish in net cages in the reservoirs adds nutrients to the water. Indonesia has Laws and Regulations concerning protection on water and the environment, but I have to say frankly that there is no improvement at all.
By Priana, Dept. of Env. Engg., Bandung Institute of Technology.
