Minister Of Environment Strives To Improve Cipinang River Water Quality In 6 Months

Minister of Environment/Head of BPLH Hanif Faisol Nurofiq (left) and Deputy Minister of Environment/Deputy Head of BPLH Diaz Hendropriyono/ANTARA

JAKARTA - Minister of Environment (LH) / Head of the Environmental Control Agency (BPLH) Hanif Faisol Nurofiq asked his staff to seek to improve the water quality index in the Cipinang River in Jakarta in the next six months.

Minister of Environment/Head of BPLH Hanif said that the index of water quality in several rivers is still not at the expected level with rivers that meet the quality of 2, or which can be used for water recreation facilities, fish cultivation and livestock, the number is still below 50 percent.

He said the KLH/BPLH needed to immediately establish a river water quality protection and management plan (RPPMA), especially in priority rivers throughout Indonesia. The realization of the RPPMA itself requires cooperation and collaboration to develop and implement it.

As a real implementation, it can be started with an increase in the water quality index (IKA) and water quality in the Cipinang River which is close to the KLH Office in Jakarta. He said that the recovery of Cipinang could be concrete evidence of efforts to restore the quality of water carried out by the government.

"We ask the officials that we will launch this afternoon or this morning, to be able to complete this Cipinang first in less than 6 months," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, January 6.

He reminded that the poor quality of water in priority watersheds (DAS) causes massive exploitation of groundwater, which in turn causes land subsidence such as in Java, which decreases by 10 cm per year.

In particular, this also happened in Jakarta, which decreased 20-30 cm per year and has the potential to sink in the next few periods.

"We really have to restore the civilization of our river that we have left for a long time, we have made our river the back of our house, as a place to dump our garbage. Meanwhile, on the other hand, we are busy entering and then exploiting the soil water as much as possible," said Hanif Faisol Nurofiq.