Indonesia’s National Development Planning Agency has commissioned Mott MacDonald to prepare a water supply master plan to address water shortages in Indonesia’s third largest city, Bandung, and its surrounding areas.
The project is due for completion in 2014 and includes a management plan for groundwater upper catchment management areas. The consultancy will also identify reforms needed to strengthen the water supply system.
Bandung lies on the Citarum river basin, which provides 80% of the water consumed in the capital city Jakarta and surrounding areas. It supports a population of about 30 million, contributes 20% of the country’s industrial outputs and produces 5% of the country’s rice.
Watershed degradation, rapid urbanization and industrialization, as well as slow development of surface water sources, have created overdependence on groundwater as a primary source of water.
As a result, the rate of water extraction from local aquifers significantly exceeds recharge rates, with water tables declining at more than 1 metre a year in some areas. This has led to acute water stress and depletion of aquifers in major urban areas such as Bandung.
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