Only 29% of Indonesians have clean tap water

Only about 29 percent of Indonesia’€™s 250 million people have access to clean tap water, while the rest of the country relies on ground water and other resources for which water quality is not guaranteed, an expert says.

Indonesian Water Institute chairman Fisdaus Ali has said that this figure is still far from the government’€™s target, which is to provide 60 percent of the population with clean tap water.

According to Firdaus, the current long dry season, caused by the El Nino phenomenon, has caused many to lose access to clean tap water because both quantity and quality of their water resources have declined.

‘€œGenerally, the drinking water consumed by people is contaminated by pathogen bacteria or other hazardous materials like lead,’€ Firdaus said as quoted by tribunnews.com in Jakarta on Tuesday.

In urban areas like Jakarta, the overexploitation of groundwater has caused land subsidence that could worsen the impact of annual flooding.

Source: The Jakarta Post. Date: 26 August, 2016

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/08/26/only-29-indonesians-have-clean-tap-water.html