Credit: Saut Sagala (Bandung Institute of Technology) with the collaboration of Belia Ega Avila and Danang Azhari (Resilience Development Initiative).

Cities face some complex challenges due to the impact of climate change. The condition is exacerbated by the number of people who move to cities since it provides a better economy, social infrastructure, and high-standard urban environment. The city of Bandung, as one of the most densely populated areas in Indonesia, is also facing similar problems with urban population and climate change. The problem seen in the city of Bandung is flooding, one of which is caused by the slow flow of the Citarum River. In response to this, the Indonesian government has taken several actions such as formulating several policies and regulations to improve the quality of the river and has collaborated with several stakeholders to implement Integrated Water Resources Management in the Citarum River. The project was well received by the community because it was able to revitalize the condition of the Citarum river. However, there are several barriers that prevent local governments from delivering and achieving a sustainable and resilient environment. To overcome those problems, the neighbourhood concept is pivotal as an integrated and sustainable approach to reduce the negative consequences of unplanned urbanisation and climate change in cities.

Keywords

Cities, climate change, urban population, sustainable neighbourhood.

Key actors and partners

To restore and develop the Citarum River in an integrated manner, the Government of Indonesia collaborated with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and stakeholders including academicians, NGOs, business circles, and the community to prepare a recovery program called the Integrated Citarum Water Resources Management Investment Program (ICWRMIP) for the integrated management of water resources in the Citarum River Basin and to collectively deal with the problems in the basin.

Furthermore, the ministry responsible for managing the IWRM project is the Ministry of Public Works (PU). On a statutory basis, the Ministry of Public Works established BBWS in 2009 under the responsibility of the Directorate General of Water Resources (Ditjen SDA) and assigned them the responsibility of managing water resources, including preparing Roadmapss and Plans, within the River Basin Areas under the Government's responsibility. In implementing the ICWRMIP program, planning, management, and implementation coordination activities for the ICWRMIP program will be carried out at three levels:

Project overview

The water resources of the rivers and groundwater systems in the Citarum River Basin are critical to the social and economic development of the country. They are essential for urban and industrial development (particularly in Jakarta and Bandung areas), including export industry, agricultural production through major irrigation systems, rural water supplies, electricity generation through hydropower, and fisheries. Sagala et al (2022) studied Bandung City’s with the approach to promote Nature Based Solutions used for sustainable urban drainage. Such as an approach aims to increase the SUDS implementation in poor and high-density urban settlement in Bandung, which aligns with the challenge of NBS implementation in the global south. Further application is expected to increase neighborhood resilience in dealing with climate change in Bandung City.

The Citarum River fulfils 80% of Jakarta's raw water needs, whereas DKI Jakarta's raw water supply of 16.1 cubic meter per second comes from the Bekasi River and West Tarum Canal. The Citarum River is also utilized as a primary energy source. Three hydroelectric power plants generate nearly 2000 MW of electricity. In addition, the Citarum River is a supplier of raw water sources for drinking water (80%), irrigation (86.70%), urban water sources (0.370%), and water for household needs and industry (2%).

Due to its size, 2,700 medium and large industries dispose of waste into the Citarum River, and unfortunately, 53% of it is not managed properly, resulting in the river's pollution load exceeding its carrying capacity. This indicates that the Citarum River is currently becoming increasingly critical, dirty, and polluted. Furthermore, many riverbank areas are used as slums for residents, causing flooding.

In order to improve the quality of the river basin and the environment surrounding it, the government, along with other non-government stakeholders (academics, non-government organisations (NGOs), private sectors, and communities) as well as Asian Development Bank (ADB), launched Integrated Citarum Water Resources Management Programme (ICWRMP). It is a set of projects aiming for clean, healthy, and productive catchments and rivers, bringing sustainable benefits to all people of the Citarum River Basin. This project was initiated in 2009 and consists of a strategic roadmap that needs to be achieved by 2023. The outcomes of the project, as stated on the Citarum River website, include:

1. Improved condition of water catchments in the upper basin;

2. Adequate quantity and good water quality in streams and reservoirs;

3. More reliable water supply and improved sanitation to urban centers (including the Jakarta conurbation that receives about 80% of its water from the Citarum River Basin via West Tarum Canal) and rural communities;

4. Reduced damage and loss of life from flooding and other water-related disasters;

5. Improved agricultural outputs resulting from more effective delivery of water for irrigation and more efficient irrigation practices; and

6. More equitable and economically efficient allocation and sharing of limited water resources.

In order to guarantee an integrated roadmap formulation, a strategic framework was created in collaboration with a diverse group of basin stakeholders. This framework is built on five foundational pillars:

Results

The Citarum watershed was experiencing pollution and environmental damage due to high domestic and industrial activities. Pollution and damage to the Citarum River included industrial pollution, agricultural waste, livestock waste, fishery waste, and domestic waste, both domestic wastewater and domestic waste. Therefore, the government through the IWRM project aimed to restore the function of the Citarum river. The collaboration among government stakeholders run well. However, it is still needed to integrate the project with the spatial document. Besides, the community should be engaged in all stages of the project in order to increase their awareness regarding the importance of environmental protection. On the other hand, this project has positive impacts to the improvement of the environment. It can reduce the stormwater runoff around the Citarum Watershed areas. The community also can enjoy the river by having recreation, doing some sports activities, to name but a few.

Lessons learned

The implementation of IWRM on the Citarum river was carried out through multi-stakeholder cooperation and has had positive impacts on the improvement of the environment and society, including:

• Improving the supporting facilities in the Citarum River.

• Implementing nature-related solutions to address the impact of climate change and hydrometeorological disasters.

• Improving water quality and accessibility.

• Reducing debris discarded by the community around the area.

• Enhancing social interaction and bonding – the community can enjoy their time around the river areas since they are surrounded by parks.

• Increasing community awareness by involving them in the implementation of the project.

• Strengthening the collaboration among the government, NGOs, and the community around the Citarum watershed is necessary to maintain the quality of the project.

• In the next project, the community should be involved from the beginning of the planning stage to the monitoring and evaluation stage. 

Reference

ADB. 2016. Integrated Citarum Water Resources Management Program - Project 1: West Tarum Canal Rehabilitation Internal Resettlement Monitoring Report (October-December 2015)

Cita-Citarum: For Better Citarum. (n.d.) Investment Program - Integrated Citarum Water Resources Management Investment Program (ICWRMIP). http://citarum.org/en/about-us/citarum-at-glance/biodiversity/116-english/uncategorised/1663-investment-program-integrated-citarum-water-resources-management-investment-program-icwrmip.html

Directorate of Water Resources and Irrigation BAPPENAS & Balai Besar Wilayah Sungai Citarum. March 2010. Roadmap for Integrated Water Resource Management in the Citarum River Basin. Available at http://citarum.org/citarum-knowledge/pusat-database/data-spasial/das-citarum-harum/55-roadmap-for-integrated-water-resources-management-in-the-citarum-river-basin/file.html 

Sagala, S., Murwindarti, A., Avila, B. E., Rosyidie, A., & Azhari, D. (2022, February). Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS) as Nature Based Solutions Approach for Flood Risk Management in High-Density Urban Settlement. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 986, No. 1, p. 012055). IOP Publishing.