Water Pollution in Surabaya

Surabaya is the second largest city in Indonesia

located in East Java Province the eastern part of Java

Island, and as the capital of the province (see picture

1). Its population 7,3 million in 1995 with annual

average growth of 1.81% (Jones 2002). Surabaya is a multi

ethnic city with rich in cultures. Several ethnic exist

such as Malay, Chinese, India, Arabian, and European.

Local Indonesian ethnics are also the dweller such as,

Java, Madura, Sunda, Batak, Banjar, Bali, and Sulawesi,

mixes with genuine people creating pluralism culture,

then becomes unique characteristic of Surabaya City. The

majority citizen is genuine Surabaya settlements and

Maduranese. The unique characteristic of Surabayanese is

easy to commingle, very open and frank in communication.

Although, it seems to have a hard temperament, the people

are democratic, tolerant, easy to help others and also

humorist.(Surabaya.go.id 2008)

Surabaya is a relatively old city, according to

history this place in 1612 was a port to which Europeans

and Arabian visit for trading, established as major

trading centre in 1743 by the Dutch colonial government,

and hosted the largest naval base in the colony

(Surabaya.go.id 2008).

The majority of citizen professions are as employees

and merchandiser. At the Central Business District (CBD)

there are a lot of Central Trade and Offices (see picture

1

3 ). There also can be found the high class of shopping

centres which sell the international high quality

commodities, although still many small stores which sell

inexpensive commodities. A lot of rounding merchandiser

and kaki lima (five feet) merchandisers that becomes the

character of Surabaya. (Surabaya.go.id 2008). In addition

at the edges and outsides of city there are a lot of

industrial estates, consist of manufacturing industries.

Surabaya has a port namely Tanjung Perak (Cape Silver) as

the centre of eastern Indonesia commodity supplier. As a

centre of trading of the eastern Indonesia, Surabaya has

been growing rapidly, particularly after 1990 when

Indonesia experienced the extraordinary economic growth.

Furthermore this becomes the appeal for people to work

and live in this city, then urbanisation is inevitable.

As a growing city, initially people live in

traditional housing areas (kampong/perkampungan). By the

annual population growth of 1.2% (Surabaya.go.id 2008) it

needs to expand housing spaces. Then there are some new

more modern housings (often called as real estates)

established. So that, citizen who can afford the price

of modern houses, choose to live in modern housing than

remain living in perkampungan. There are several choices

of real estates; from the ordinary modern housing to

international class housing which completed by some

supported facilities such as golf lawn, shopping centre,

sport centre, international school, medical centre and

security guards.

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Today Surabaya occupies some surrounding regions

such as Sidoarjo, Gresik, Mojokerto and Bangkalan become

on integrated area which known as the concept of the

Extended Metropolitan Region (EMR).

As its population grows, Surabaya has been facing

environmental risk particularly in water waste problem.

In relation with the environmental risk transition model,

Surabaya can be categorized as a transition city, which

according to the model presented at seminar 2 (2008), it

is levelled at somewhere between Stage1 and Stage2 when

traditional environmental risks still exist such as

people throw garbage irregularly and flowing water waste

into channel which end in rivers. However, there are some

increasing number of modern waste management which is

done by some factories, hotels and modern housings. Yet

in general water waste management in Surabaya is still in

low quality. This can be seen from the river water which

often has black colour, turbid, and sometimes releases

bad smells.

In addition, because of its location on the estuary

of Brantas River, the river which connected with Bengawan

Solo (Solo River) which passes trough 2 provinces;

Central Java and East Java (wikipedia 2008), then this

becomes additional problem since all waste of Brantas

River added by waste from Bengawan Solo flow to Surabaya.

The main source of the Brantas River’s pollution was

urban wastewater, which comprises domestic and industrial

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wastes (Wahyuningsih 2007) up to now its composition is

still debatable.

Kali Surabaya (Surabaya’s river) area has a lot of

industries on both sides of the river. There are 22

industries have been pointed out as having the

significant impact on river water quality (Novita 2007)

moreover there are also six industries located in

Mojokerto that dispose of their wastewater to the Brantas

River, These industries are paper factory, sugar factory,

monosodium glutamate factories, and chemical companies.

It leads to the increase of water pollution in the

Brantas River (Wahyuningsih 2007).

The water river is the main source of water supply

for urban population of Surabaya such as for drinking,

gardening, washing ect. There is a public enterprise of

water supply (Perum Jasa Tirta) that process water from

the river becomes fresh water to provide urban population

consumption. Today this company is struggling to produce

the proper water for people consumption because river’s

water contains pollutant that is increasing during the

last decades.

The research of Perum Jasa Tirta in 2000 found that

the main source of Kali Mas Pollution comes from domestic

liquid waste which contribute 87% of all water river

pollution and the remain 13% is from liquid waste of

industries.

The effect of domestic waste on the river indeed can

be obviously observed in the dry season, this is because

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the water waste debit is constant while the debit of

river water reduces up to 3 times. In rainy season the

debit of Kali Surabaya reaches at 60 m3/second while at

dry season it goes down to 20 m3/second. This reduces the

thinning ability of river water to domestic waste, as a

result emerges scum turn to form spume clods, this

impact is often seen from the water door of release

channel of dismissal at Darmo Kali to Keputran Market and

Kayoon Submarine Monument (Fahrizal 2004).

Domestic wastes are divided in two categories; the

first, domestic liquid waste which come from water waste

washing which contains soap, detergent, oil and

pesticide. The second is liquid waste of which come from

the water closet be like soap, shampoo, faeces and urine.

Domestic liquid wastes produce organic compounds

such as protein, carbohydrates, fat, and nucleate acid.

In dry season the debit of Mas River’s water downwards at

300%, hence organic materials that enter into water will

resulted in degradation of water quality by the three

ways: First, since water need extra oxygen for

decomposing of organic compounds, this will result in

lack of river oxygen, as consequence distribution of

oxygen to other water biota decrease. Reduction of oxygen

in water this often results in fish munggut (mass death

fish as an effect of oxygen insufficiency). Second,

organic waste contains high solved solid material causing

high turbidity so that this reduces the sunlight

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penetration which useful for biota’s photosynthetic.

Third, tens of ton solved solid material which thrown by

almost more than 3 million the people in Surabaya will

sediment and change elementary characteristic of river

base, as a result some biota which live in the base of

river will be eliminated or even totally disappeared.

(Fahrizal 2004).

The impact of organic waste is normally because of

two types of liquid waste; detergent and faeces.

Detergent is very dangerous for the environment;

detergent has an ability to dissolve carcinogenic

materials such as 3,4 Benzonpyrene, besides create a

problem of health, obstetrical detergent in drinking

water will generate bad aroma and strange taste, while,

faeces is the type of carrier of assorted diseases for

human. (Arisandi 2004).

Detergent generally consist of five types compiler

materials. First, surfactant, which is the compound of

Alkyl Benzene Sulfonat (ABS), functioning to lift the

dirt from clothes. ABS is resistant to the decomposition

by microorganism (non-biodegradable). Second, phosphate,

as filler material, prevents dirt attaching back to

material, which is being washed. Phosphate compound used

by all brands of detergent contributes big enough to the

process of eutrofication which causes Algae booming (wild

water plant population booming). Third, whitener and

deodorant of (benefactor material) whitener generally

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consist of sodium carbonate. According to the result of

research by the consumer organization of Malaysia (CAP)

whitener can effect on cancer on human body. While

deodorant is nothing more to the prejudice of the

consumer because materials make cost production higher,

so that selling price of the product is progressively

costly, whereas deodorant has no relationships with the

ability to clean. Fourth, material which producing

spumes, which actually is not needed in washing because

there is no relationship between cleaning power and the

abundance of spume. Fifth, fluorescent, this is useful to

make the clothes brighter. (Fahrizal 2004)

The riskiest share of domestic waste is pathogenic

microorganism which is consisted in faeces, because it

can transmit diseases into the human body. In 1 gram

faeces contain 1 billion invective viruses, capable to

live for several weeks at temperature less than 10

degrees of Celsius. There are 4 pathogenic microorganisms

which implied in faeces: virus, protozoa, worm and

bacterium which generally represented by type of

Escherichia coli (E-coli). According to World Health

Organization (WHO) report that liquid domestic waste that

have not been processed have the virus content equal to

100.000 particles of invective virus which in each litre,

there are more than 120 types of pathogenic viruses which

is consisted in urine and faeces. (Arisandi 2004)

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E-coli is the most microorganism which threaten Kali

Mas. The bacterium that are dweller of human intestine

and hot-blood animals, have contaminated water of this

river. Dhani Arnantha, staff of the Research Institute

of Ecological Study and Wet Land Conservation found

that, at upstream of River Mas precisely in Ngagel area,

the number of E-coli in 100 ml water of kali Mas are 350

billion- 1600 billion whereas the standard quality which

specified by the Governmental rule of PP 82/2001

concerning liquid waste control mentioned that water

which exploit for standard drinking water such as kali

Mas cotaining E-coli in 100 ml water should not more than

10.000.

Pollutant’s impact on human

When pollutant enters into the river it would leads

to a problem such as the reek, this happens particularly

at the night around 22.00 pm or at early morning, this

fact is told by Kastari 60 year citizen of Perning

countryside which his house is nearby Pening bridge ."

reek which come from waste of flour factory, PT AAP

every day bother us citizen who live a long path of Kali

Kwangean until Kali Brantas, particularly at the night

when the factory throw away the waste with condensed

black and white," said Kastari who has daily profession

as a solder of appliance which his workshop located in

area of bridge Perning. Kastari added that dismissal

waste of PT AAP have lost his former profession as a

fisherman who net fishes in the river." Before existence

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of this factory every day I can net 2-3 kg of fish in

Kwangean, but since existence of waste all totally

disappeared," Kastari said. (Arisandi 2004)

Another pollutant effect of waste which come from

domestic waste is e-coli bacteria which caused by faeces.

When faeces enter the body water, E-coli will contaminate

water, and this will effect on human body which use the

water. Even at some stage E-coli can weaken mechanism of

defence or immunity of body and can stay in pelvix of

kidney and liver. Since very high level of domestic

pollutant contaminating Kali Mas (main river splitting

Surabaya) this affects significantly to the people’s

health who live in a long of Kali Mas sides, this refers

to the data which released by the Children’s Cancer

Foundation , Dr Soetomo Central Hospital (2003) which

mentioned that 59% patient of children’s cancer is

leukaemia patient and most of cancer patients live in the

drainage basin of Brantas including Kali Surabaya and

Kali Mas. Other cancer type that commonly attacts

children who live in river’s sides is cancer of nerve

(neuroblastoma), cancer of gland lymph (Limfoma), cancer

of kidney (wilms tumor), and eye cancer (Fahrizal 2004).

The causes of problems /pollution:

Cultural: It is quite usual for people particularly in

villages to throw rubbish into the rivers. This is

because rivers in Indonesia have water which flows

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relatively fast, so that, the rubbish can be brought to

downstream quickly, while the river is still clean. In

addition in rainy season there are often the debits of

river’s water increase so that it can push all kind of

waste in rivers to the sea, and the quality of the water

can be maintained naturally. However that story was

happened in the past when population is still low and its

waste can be accepted by environment naturally. But now

some people still have that behaviour since they are

originated from village that then move to urban area and

still brings the bad behaviour.

Ignorance to the environment sustainability of

Industrial.

The problem actually begins when many factories

flows their liquid waste into Brantas River. Actually the

government has a regulation of liquid waste, that

factories is prohibited to flow their waste into the

river if the waste exceeds environmental threshold

(Kepmen LH no 3 /1998), however, beyond the public

detection, there a lot of factories which located along

river sides flow the waste into the river under control.

This leads to water river pollution. It is questionable

that government that has public authority to regulate

already has regulation to manage waste that can be flow

into public space such as river but factories still throw

the illegal waste into river.

The problem is not only on how the government as the

public regulator manages the waste management system, but

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is also on the law enforcement aspect, infact this case

that becomes the trouble maker. Many cases of liquid

waste collision end on the question marks when the cases

are brought into court, since the accused companies often

passed from proper punishments.

Some evidences that show the case as follow: these

companies have polluted the Kali Surabaya but only got a

light penalty. PT Wings Surya located in Driyorejo has

been punished by fine of 1 million rupiahs of maximum 300

million rupiah and PT Platinum Keramik Industry got

penalty 4 million rupiahs. The light penalty that

companies got make those still do same thing in the next

time (ecoton 2007)

Conclusion and Solution

There is some problem of water waste management in

Surabaya such as water river pollution. Actually

Government has regulated about disposing waste which

included in Government Regulation regarding environmental

sustainability however people particularly industries

still ignore the regulation. In order to maintenance

environment sustainability that can be utilized by

citizen, government should enforce the regulation

properly. In this case collision between industries and

the judicative should be eradicated.

It is good idea whether some communal waste

processing units should be built to avoid domestic waste

flown into public space like rivers. Since there is no

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choice for people who living in traditional housing or

low level housing to flow their liquid waste rather than

into rivers. In addition, the proper sanction should be

applied for people who throwing waste to public

properties such as rivers.

References:

Arisandi, Prigi 2004, Mewaspadai bahaya limbah domestic di Kali Mas. Media terbitan Lembaga Kajian Ekologi dan KonservasiLahan Basah (Ecological Observation And Wetlands Conservation). Surabaya

Fahrizal 2004, Kandungan zat berbahaya dalam pencemaranKali Surabaya, Universitas Pembangunan Nasional, Surabaya

Forster, C 2008, The Environmental risk transition model. Seminar 1.2 ENVS9001, School of Geography, Population, and Environmental Management, Flinders University, Adelaide

Jones, G.W. 2002 , “Southeast Asian urbanization and the growth of mega-urban regions”, Journal of Population Research online. Viewed 14 April 2008 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PCG/is_2_19/ai_105711362/pg_10

Laporan Tahunan 2000, Kualitas Air Sungai. Perum Jasa Tirta I.Surabaya Mininistry of Environment of Republic of Indonesia 1998, Keputusan Menteri Negara Lingkungan Hidup No. 3 Tahun 1998 Tentang Baku Mutu Limbah Cair Bagi Kawasan Industri, Jakarta.

NA. 2008, Bengawan Solo River,Wikipedia.org, viewed, 14 April2008.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solo_River>

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Novita, Elida 2007, Centralised Wastewater Treatment Plant Studies as an Alternative to Reduce Industrial Pollution Loads at Kali Surabaya, Master Thesis, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh November( Surabaya University of Technology), Surabaya

President of Republic of Indonesia 1997, Undang-Undang Repulik Indonesia No 23 Tahun 1997 Tentang Pengelolaan Lingkungan Hidup, Jakarta

Surabaya City Government 2008, Surabaya Demography online, viewed 14 April 2008. <http://www.surabaya.go.id/demografis.php>

Wahyuningsih, Sri 2007, Study on The Brantas River Pollution Level from Urban Wastewater by Applying Duflow Model (Kertosono – Mojokerto Internode) Master Thesis, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh November ( Surabaya University of Technology), Surabaya

Appendix

Figure 1. Indonesian map, the arrow shows the location ofSurabaya.

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Picture 2. Map of Surabaya in 1800

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Pictute 3. Surabaya CBD, Picture 4. The polluted creek in Surabaya

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