The Threats to Urban Water Security of Indonesian Cities

Abstract

Indonesian cities are facing complex urban water problems which are inter-related among the provision of water supply, water pollution, water related disasters, groundwater degradation, and poor solid waste management. The threats to urban water security are caused by population growth, climate change, and water conflict. Increasing population growth causes the increasing raw water demand which should be transferred from the rural areas due to heavy pollution of the water body in urban areas. Changing policy in water use from agricultural water to urban water supply causes water conflict between farmers in rural areas and water supply enterprise in urban areas, which could extend to inter-regional water conflict. In addition, over abstraction of the groundwater to fulfil water supply demand resulted degradation of groundwater table and land subsidence, which disturbance drainage system. In some coastal areas, those phenomena even increase the risk of the city to seawater flooding and intrusion. Finally, climate change which has changed the pattern of rainy season and rainfall intensity has been increasing the risk of the cities to flooding and water supply availability. To increase urban water security, each municipality should ensure the availability of water supply and sanitation system, mitigate water-related disasters, and maintain good collaboration with neighbouring regencies/cities. New paradigm of integrated urban water management should be developed to increase urban water security in Indonesian cities. The development of the Urban Water Security Index could be used to monitor and evaluate the progress of the cities in improving their urban water service.