Urban–Rural Interrelations in Water Resource Management: Problems and Factors Affecting the Sustainability of the Drinking Water Supply in the City of Bandung, Indonesia

Abstract

Urban areas in Indonesia frequently rely on the water supply from rural areas located outside their administrative boundaries. This urban–rural interrelation through water resources and the problems related to sustainability of the supply apply to the Indonesian city of Bandung, where the demand is increasing for clean water for daily needs. This provincial capital relies on water supplies generated in catchment areas located in different towns and districts outside the city. A multidisciplinary study was carried out to elucidate the present and future conditions of the water supply for Bandung as well as factors affecting the sustainability of that supply. This study demonstrates that the present situation in the catchment areas is a cause for concern, and environmental conditions are worsening in some parts of the catchment. Among the measures adopted to deal with the current problems are reforestation and land conservation; however, other essential factors relating to agricultural practices and efficient water use have not been properly considered. A conceptual plan needs to be implemented at the landscape level—a plan that takes into account both biophysical and social aspects of the area where the rehabilitation program for maintaining sustainability of the water supply will be carried out.

1 Introduction

Among other ways, urban–rural interaction is maintained in many parts of Indonesia through the supply and demand the of water supply. It is quite common for many urban areas to be absolutely reliant on surrounding rural areas for their water. This has led to the sustainability of the water supply to urban areas being highly dependent on how water resources are managed in sources beyond their urban boundaries. Sustainable water resource management that guarantees the maintenance of urban–rural interaction has become an important issue in Indonesia in general and in Java in particular. This is because in many parts of the country, the availability of drinking water is an important issue—not only from the perspective of water quantity and quality, but also in terms of social and national development in general. As noted by Saravanan (2008) and Antunes et al. (2009), water availability is an important element in socioeconomic development and poverty eradication; water resource management is a complex and challenging issue because it covers hydrological and biological systems in addition to the needs, values, and concerns related to human purposes. Moreover, the potential regional impacts of global environmental change, such as with climate, may also pose a great challenge for users and managers of water resources (Bharati et al. 2008); many cities in Java are experiencing great difficulties because of their inadequate water management infrastructure and are in a state of crisis with respect to their water supply.

This situation certainly applies to the city of Bandung in West Java. The provincial capital with a population of about 2.45 million (Bandung Central Agency on Statistics 2012), Bandung is absolutely dependent on surrounding rural areas for its water supply. Catchment areas for the city’s drinking water are located to the north and south of the city outside its administrative boundary (City of Bandung 2011). The catchment areas occur within 13 subwatershed regions, and administratively they belong to six neighboring districts: the districts of Bandung, West Bandung, Cimahi, Sumedang, Cianjur, and Garut (Board of Regional Planning and Development of District Bandung 2008). In these regions, agriculture and other bioresource-based extractive activities are still predominant, and this has a great effect on the water supplied to Bandung.

The demand for drinking water in Bandung is projected to increase along with the city’s population growth, which is currently above 1 %/year. The projected average year-on-year increase in water demand from 2008 to 2015 was about 3.8 %. Nevertheless, the city’s supplier of drinking water, Perusahaan Daerah Air Minum Kota Bandung (Bandung Drinking Water Company ), stated that it would not be able to fulfill this increasing demand. This was due to the fact that the company was facing serious problems, among which were infrastructure, deteriorating conditions in the water resource and catchment areas, conflicts in water usage, and institutional-related aspects. Along the same lines, the West Java Regional Planning and Development Agency (2004) reported that by 2010 there would be a water shortage, the estimated deficit being about 0.13 billion m³/year for the Bandung Metropolitan Area . At present, the city’s water company is able to provide drinking water to only about 74.2 % of Bandung’s population (Bandung Drinking Water Company 2012). However, the company set itself the target of increasing the proportion of households with drinking water to about 85 % by 2015. Bandung’s water company thus needs to make a fundamental change in its water supply and management strategy from traditional supply-based management to demand management (Vairavamoorthy et al. 2008).

The catchment areas that currently supply drinking water to Bandung are experiencing serious degradation owing to population growth, land conversion for new settlements and expansion of agricultural land, reduced forested land, and unsustainable agricultural practices. These factors have affected not only the amount of available water but also the quality of the raw water flowing to water treatment plants in the city. Catchment rehabilitation has to be undertaken in the Citarum watershed, which is the most important watershed for supplying drinking water to Bandung. The present condition of the watershed is critical because of various unsustainable practices in the agricultural, industrial, and domestic sectors. In this regard, integrated measures have to be implemented; this is because water resource management has to consider complex interactions among social, economic, and environmental systems that occur within the catchment, including the impacts of usage and management decisions on the overall sustainability of the catchment system (Letcher 2005).

2 Materials and Methods

The data presented in this chapter are part of the results derived from a multidisciplinary study carried out by the Institute of Ecology, Padjadjaran University, Bandung, in cooperation with the Bandung Drinking Water Company (Institute of Ecology 2009). The collected primary data cover biophysical and social aspects related to water resource management. Biophysical aspects comprise hydrology (including water quality), environmental geology, climate and rainfall, soil and land use, and the agroecosystem. Social aspects consist of demographics, socioeconomics, sociocultural issues, and institutional arrangements (including leadership and social orientation).

The study area was divided into two main subcatchment areas—Cisangkuy and Cilaki. Hydrological sampling to measure water quantity and quality was performed at 31 sampling sites located in the two subcatchment areas. In all, 34 parameters of water quality were measured in the field and analyzed in the laboratory. The results were then compared with the standards detailed in provincial regulations concerning raw water for drinking water. For social and agroecosystem surveys, a number of villages located in the two subcatchment areas were selected based on socioecological characteristics that might affect water resource management.

3 Results and Discussion

3.1 Current Situation and Conditions Related to Water Resources in Bandung

The main sources of raw water for the drinking water in Bandung are the Cisangkuy and Cilaki rivers, located in south Bandung (both rivers are part of the Citarum watershed ); they supply about 80 % of the city’s raw water. The catchment area in south Bandung is located in an upland region with undulating, hilly areas; there are scattered areas of flat land, particularly at lower elevations. From spatial data measurements, about 36 % of the catchment area has a slope >40 %. With these topographic conditions, in conjunction with Andosols and Latosol as the dominant soil types and declining tree cover, the catchment is vulnerable to severe erosion. The average annual erosion rate is about 146.5 tonnes/ha, which causes high turbidity in the Cilaki and Cisangkuy rivers, and the great majority of the area (about 93 %) is categorized as having a “severe” to “very severe” erosion rate. Therefore, appropriate land management is essential.

The dynamics of river water discharge in the catchment area in south Bandung are evident in its intermittent character (Narulita et al. 2006). The water discharge depends on the amount of rainfall: the greater the rainfall, the greater the water discharge into the river. However, during the dry season, the water discharge drops considerably, and it has been decreasing over the last few years. The ratio between the maximum and minimum discharge can be used as an indicator of deteriorating conditions in the watershed. A previous study determined that the coefficient between the maximum and minimum water discharge in the Upper Citarum watershed was >50 (West Java Environmental Management Agency 2002). This result indicates that environmental conditions in the catchment area that supplies drinking water to Bandung are undergoing a moderate decline.

The surface water entering the Cisangkuy and Cilaki rivers consists of main and supplementary sources (the latter consists of an irregular supply from areas surrounding reservoirs). These sources have their headwaters in Mount Wayang in addition to some tributaries; about 13 major tributaries supply water to the Cisangkuy and Cilaki rivers. From these two rivers, water is then run as raw water to the intake before being treated as drinking water in the water treatment plant in Bandung. Based on field measurements, the water discharge varies from site to site: the range is 0.02–8.4 m³/s, and the water velocity is 0.07–2.3 m³/s.

Water discharge in the Cilaki River decreased during the period 1993–2006 (Indonesia Power 2008). The maximum water discharge was 4.79 m³/s, which was recorded in March 1993; the lowest water discharge was 0.1 m³/s, which was observed in August 2006. The average water discharge in the 1993–2006 period was 1.24–3.68 m³/s. Based on annual data, though there has been some fluctuation, the water discharge has shown a declining trend over the last 5 years. In general, the catchment area in south Bandung has low to moderate aquifer productivity (Fig. 15.1).

Fig. 15.1

Map of hydro-geological conditions and important rivers supplying water to Bandung

In addition to this decreasing water quantity, the water generated from the catchment area in south Bandung is also suffering from a deterioration in quality. Water quality measurements at several sampling sites in the Cisangkuy and Cilaki rivers indicate worsening in the case of a number of parameters. At some sites in the Cisangkuy and Cilaki rivers, the measured values for certain parameters do not meet the standards stipulated in decree number 39 concerning raw water for drinking (category B) issued by the governor of West Java in the year 2000. These parameters are hydrogen sulfide, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, surfactant, sulfate, manganese (only in the Cisangkuy River), fecal coliforms, and total coliforms. Overall, the quality of water in the Cilaki River is categorized as “poor” as raw water for drinking water.

The declining water quality in the catchment area is caused by several related factors, such as expansion of intensive agricultural practices without implementation of appropriate measures for land conservation and water source protection, and expansion of human settlements. All these factors appear to derive from continuing population growth and the increasing number of resource-poor farmers. The majority of farmers own agricultural land measuring 0.3 ha or less; this has caused a land conservation program through tree planting in critical land outside the forest area to not be too successful. Only about 62 % of the planted trees can grow well in farmers’ land as compared with 95 % in the forest area. Therefore, integrated measures that incorporate various biophysical and social aspects need to be considered to improve the water quality in the catchment area of south Bandung. Some necessary measures have been taken, though these have not yet produced the desired results. Reforestation, land conservation, reducing water pollution, and law enforcement are among the measures put into effect, and they have involved local and regional governmental offices, academic institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and the public. In relation to this, the Indonesian Ministry of Public Works has established management planning for the Citarum watershed (Directorate General of Water Resource 2012) but, so far, management of this watershed has tended to be only partially carried out (only in certain sectors) owing to a lack of mutual understanding among the relevant stakeholders. It is likely that the absence of common principles that accommodate the interests of all parties is a factor behind this situation. In addition, the relevant stakeholders do not as yet properly understand such notions as adopting an ecosystem (landscape) approach as the basis for watershed rehabilitation. Water managers need to recognize more clearly that there are additional, but no less critical, issues beyond the watershed itself—issues of a sociological, ecological, and also political nature (Merrey 2008).

3.2 Stakeholders Involved in Water Resource Management System

The stakeholders of the water resource management system of drinking water for Bandung can be categorized into five groups: provincial and district government, community, public and private enterprises, university, and nongovernmental organizations. In terms of their status in the management of the water resource, these stakeholders can be categorized as “holders” (controllers), users, and regulators. Based on this, they can be classified into three different levels (Fig. 15.2). Level one consists of “holders” of water sources; there are three main actors, namely the state’s forestry company, tea plantation estate, and natural resource conservation agency. Headwaters are scattered within the forested and plantation areas managed or controlled by these state-owned companies and agency. The tea plantation is also a direct user of the water resource. Other direct users are local farmers, local villagers working outside the agricultural sector, and the state’s electricity company.

Fig. 15.2

Stakeholders involved in the water resource management system of drinking water in Bandung City

Level two mainly consists of government agencies and offices involve in policy and regulation making. Bandung’s drinking water company also belongs on this level since the company does not have direct access to the water sources. The largest portion of raw water to supply the company’ s needs comes from water spillage from a hydropower plant owned by the state’s electricity company. This condition suggests that the drinking water company heavily relies on other stakeholders to maintain its water supply. Level three consists of drinking water consumers in Bandung city and downstream water users, and other district and provincial government agencies and offices.

It is obvious that the water resource management system of drinking water for Bandung is quite complex as indicated by the fact that there are many stakeholders directly and indirectly involved. The presence of stakeholders with different level of importance and influence might affect the sustainability of the water supply to the city of Bandung to fulfill the present demand and the future development of drinking water services. In relation to this, Tortajada and Joshi (2013) stated that it is very important to gradually involve more sectors and actors who can make positive additions with their participation in the complex task of efficient water resource management. Furthermore, Thornton et al (2013) pointed out that collective actions of stakeholders are necessary in order to achieve exceptional and outstanding water resource management in the watershed context.

3.3 Direct and Indirect Factors Affecting Water Supply Sustainability

The sustainability of the drinking water supply for Bandung depends on how the water resources, including of course the watershed, are managed. The prime factor that profoundly affects the sustainability of the water supply to Bandung is population growth; this generates several affecting factors, such as land conversion, unsustainable agricultural practices, forest encroachment, and poverty. This condition is in line with what was stated by Vairavamoorthy et al. (2008), whereby population increase and urbanization cause the present hydrological cycle to undergo rapid changes, which are difficult to predict. These factors affect the condition of the catchment area, where raw water is generated to supply drinking water for Bandung.

Environmental degradation in the catchment area in south Bandung is the result of the majority of villagers relying on local natural resources for their livelihood. Over 70 % of the population living in the catchment area subsists on income-generating activities in agriculture and extractive activities. However, landlessness is a persistent problem in the area. The average area of land ownership among farmers does not generally exceed 0.3 ha. Environmental degradation is also due to the reduction in forest cover caused by forest encroachment, which has occurred over the last 10 years. Encroachment has caused the disappearance of about 17,533 ha of forest cover (Bandung District Regional Planning and Development Agency 2008). Some parts of the forested area have also been designated as production forest, where tree cutting is commonly practiced. As a result of the expansion of human settlements, it is estimated that about 47 % of the catchment area has become or is becoming built up.

Deteriorating environmental conditions in the catchment area are obvious in the Cisangkuy watershed, where 30 % of the area is currently suffering very severe erosion (>480 tons/ha/year). Although there are no official data, it is believed that water utilization for agricultural, domestic, and other purposes (e.g., the tea plantation) has increased. This has resulted in growing conflicts over the use of water resources between fulfilling the need to supply Bandung with drinking water and the local domestic and agricultural needs for water in the catchment area of south Bandung.

From an institutional perspective, it is apparent that there is still a lack of coordination among the various institutions (government, private, and public) at different administrative levels (local and provincial). As described in the previous section, there are diverse stakeholders involved in the supply of drinking water for Bandung; therefore, the need for harmonization of different interests among them through consensus building to establish mutual relational capital is unavoidable. Wallis and Ison (2011) stated that institutional innovation is required to build relational capital aimed at achieving an effective water resource management system that takes into account socioecological perspectives. Above all, law enforcement with respect to managing water and land resources is another issue that has not been properly executed. The current problems related to water resources in south Bandung are summarized in Tables 15.1, 15.2, and 15.3.

Table 15.1 Summary of problems directly and indirectly related to water resources in the catchment area of south Bandung: climatic and geological aspects

Table 15.2 Summary of problems directly and indirectly related to water resources in the catchment area of south Bandung: hydrological and land use aspects

Table 15.3 Summary problems directly and indirectly related to water resources in the catchment area of south Bandung: agroecosystem and social aspects

4 Conclusions

Bandung is experiencing a serious problem with regard to its water supply for drinking water. This may affect its aim to improve its drinking water supply and service in the coming years. The problems faced in current water resource management are caused by deterioration in environmental conditions in the catchment area, owing to biophysical and social factors. A conceptual plan needs to be established at the landscape level by taking into account biophysical as well as social aspects of the area in which the rehabilitation program to maintain water supply sustainability will be carried out.