High-Tech Reverse Osmosis Water Plant on Its Way to Riau Islands, Ministry Says

Jakarta Globe, July 28, 2012

Water vendors fill up jerry cans in Madura, East Java. The water comes
from a plant that uses reverse osmosis. (JG Photo/Safir Makki)  

   

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The national government is planning to build a plant to convert seawater into drinking water using reverse osmosis technology in Tanjung Pinang, Riau Islands, an official said on Friday.

The plant will have a clean water production capacity of 50 liters per second, said Danny Sutjiono, director for drinking water development at the Public Works Ministry.

“This is estimated to be able to meet the demand for 40,000 customers at a tariff of around Rp 8,000 to Rp 9,000 per cubic meter per second,” Danny said.

Danny said the project was now in the tender phase for construction. He said that he hoped a contract could be signed in October and that construction could start immediately thereafter.

“I hope the project will be operational at the end of 2013,” he added.

Reverse osmosis is expensive. Danny said the investment needed for the Riau Islands project was four times what freshwater projects of a similar scale would cost.

The Public Works Ministry said it would allocate Rp 40 billion ($4.24 million) to build the plant.

The winner of the tender must not only construct the physical facility but also operate the plant and build the necessary distribution pipeline network, Danny said.

“They will have to handle the construction process and the provision of water. All we want is for the seawater to be processed into drinking water and channeled to the houses,” he said.

The ministry has already built one reverse osmosis plant, on Mandangin island in Sampang, East Java, off the coast of the larger Madura island.

That plant has a similar production capacity to that of the proposed Riau Islands facility. After the Mandangin plant is officially inaugurated by Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto in early August, it will serve an estimated 20,000 people.

That plant’s water sells for Rp 12,000 per cubic meter per second, Danny said.

Investor Daily

Govt Pairs With F Cubed for Safe Drinking Water Project

Jakarta Globe, March 17, 2012

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The Indonesian government has announced it will partner with sustainable water technology firm F Cubed to set up solar-powered desalination kits across the country.

Indroyono Soesilo, secretary at the office of the coordinating minister for people’s welfare, said on Thursday that there was an urgent need to provide a sustainable and reliable source of clean water in villages and isolated communities nationwide.

The decision to partner with F Cubed, he said, was crucial in this respect. “We need to immediately find a solution to providing clean water in areas that experience chronic water shortages,” he said.

He said the Australian company would work with the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) to set up its Carocell solar-powered desalination kits throughout the country.

Peter Johnstone, the F Cubed founder and chief executive, said the desalination technology that his company had pioneered was proven to produce high-quality drinking water.

“Our technology can turn water from any source, be it seawater, groundwater, polluted or even contaminated water, into clean, potable water,” he said. “And because it runs on solar power, the water can be produced at a very low cost.”

Among the other benefits of the Carocell system that the company touts are that it “emits no greenhouse gas emissions, uses no chemicals, no costly membranes, no filters, no electronics and no ongoing power source is required other than solar radiation.”

The system is based on a single or a series of low-cost solar panels that can be mounted on the roof of a building or on the ground. The water goes into a feeder pipe running along the top of the panel, then is allowed to run down in evenly dispersed streams to the bottom of the panel.

As it flows down, it gets heated by the solar panel and vaporizes, condensing on the inside of the panel enclosure and eventually dripping out through a clean water outlet pipe.

F Cubed claims the distillation process, high temperatures and exposure to ultraviolet light kill any bacteria and germs in the water. The company also says its panels have double the solar efficiency of similar water purification systems.

The smaller of its two types of solar panels, with a surface area of three square meters, can produce up to 20 liters of clean water a day, while the larger panel, at six square meters, can produce double that amount.

Each panel converts 30 to 40 percent of the feed water into clean water.

The whole cycle can be carried out six times, after which the remaining fluid, with a high salt concentration, is crystallized to produce salt, as part of the F Cubed’s “zero liquid discharge” technology.

Johnstone said the Carocell panels were already in use in 26 countries, including Malaysia, India and Bangladesh.

“We are currently assessing building a factory in Indonesia with investment of around $10 million,” he said. “We want to participate in efforts to improve people’s welfare by providing clean water and creating jobs.”

F Cubed says that because the system runs entirely on solar power, there are no mechanical parts and no electronics, making it ideal for installation in remote, rural areas, as well as for use in disaster relief situations.

Antara 

Indonesian Garbage Project Helps to Save the Climate

Jakarta Globe, Christiane Oelrich, January 01, 2012

A man perches on a makeshift raft on a river covered with trash as he
 searches for materials to recycle, north of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta
 in this file photo. Residents in Tangerang are taking trash collection into
their own hands. (Reuters Photo/Supri) 

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Tangerang. Crouched and concentrated, August and Karma rip open knotted plastic bags at the foot of a big pile of rubbish.

Yoghurt cups, paper packaging, plastic, pineapple rinds, cabbage leaves, chicken bones and the like fall out. The young Indonesian men begin sorting. Organic material goes to one side, and bottles, plastic and paper to the other.

“A super job,” remarks Karma, 23. “Finally, reliable work.” The two sort their rubbish and that of their neighbors, too. For the past year, the 325 families in Griya Serpong — a working class housing area of Tangerang, a city some 40 kilometers south-west of Jakarta — have been disposing of their garbage themselves.

Municipal garbage collection was never reliable, and the residents used to dump their refuse in a vacant field — a paradise for rats, flies, mosquitoes and snakes.

Everything is different now. The roofed garbage sorting facility is a source of local pride.

“It’s got a lot cleaner here,” notes Ulil Albab, the project’s honorary chairman.

“Nobody wanted to have anything to do with rubbish before. Now we bring school kids here and show them how to compost,” Karma says.

Residents built the facility with the help of BEST, a local non-governmental organization focusing on urban poverty and community development, and BORDA (Bremen Overseas Research and Development Association), a German non-profit organization that aims to improve the living conditions of disadvantaged communities and to keep the environment intact.

At a monthly cost per family of 12,000 Indonesian rupiahs, or a little over 1 dollar, August and Karma sweep through the alleyways of Griya Serpong with their moped and trailer every day collecting garbage — 400 kilograms of it.

They compost all organic refuse at the sorting facility. It is then sold along with the plastic, glass and paper.

Agathe, 35, has made a business out of rubbish. She collects discarded detergent and noodle bags. She and her girlfriends fashion colorful handbags and wallets from them.

When everything of value has been separated out of the housing area’s refuse, no more than 30 percent remains. It is taken to a tip.

BEST Director Hamzah Harun Al Rasyid is pleased. “It’s a win-win situation,” he says. “The housing area is cleaner, there are new jobs, and there is considerably less rubbish, so we’re reducing methane emissions from the garbage tips.”

Karma and August constantly turn over the compost pile, which aerates it. This helps prevent the formation of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that makes garbage tips a big contributor to global warming.

As Indonesia’s population grows rapidly, so do the piles of garbage that are produced by the country’s more than 240 million inhabitants.

While recycling is a booming industry — for example in Germany, where it generates some 67 billion dollars in revenues annually — almost all of the Indonesian garbage is incinerated or dumped in open tips.

About 1.8 million tons of garbage is likely to be produced daily worldwide by 2025, according to BORDA. In Indonesia, 62 percent of the refuse is organic and could be composted. But there is no large-scale sorting of refuse.

Facilities like the one in Griya Serpong are catching on. The twenty-first one is to be inaugurated in the near future, and many other communities are clamoring for their own.

“We estimate that each facility like this reduces methane by 132 tons a year,” said Jati Kusumowati, who works at the BORDA office in the city of Yogyakarta. “We think they ought to be promoted internationally as well.” One way to do this might be via the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) set out in the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which allows industrialized countries to meet their emission--reduction or limitation commitments in part by paying for emission cuts in developing countries.

A one-ton reduction in methane would earn about 13 to 16 dollars, according to Kusumowati.

But small projects such as the one in Griya Serpong would not clear the technical and bureaucratic hurdles necessary for them to be officially recognized. BORDA is now trying to get the requirements for small projects loosened.

DPA

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Jakarta Turns to Dutch Experts for Sea Dike Plan

Jakarta Globe, Dofa Fasila, September 14, 2011

The Jakarta administration is receiving help from the Rotterdam authorities in preparing a master plan for a massive sea dike that will help the capital deal with its perennial flood problems.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, speaking after receiving the Dutch technical assistance team, said preparations for the plan would take about nine months.

Completing the plan, he added, would likely take two years, and implementing it would take at least a decade.

“We hope this project can proceed, and not be delayed, because it will really determine the future of Jakarta,” Fauzi said.

The Indonesian team spearheading the endeavor will also involve the Public Works Ministry and the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), Fauzi said.

The same team completed a study, the Jakarta Coastal Defense Strategy, in May. The study foresees the need for the giant sea wall to be built off the coast of Jakarta by 2025.

The massive sea wall, besides helping Jakarta cope with flooding, will also fortify the city’s water supplies, long a problem in the capital, Fauzi said.

“The emphasis in the building of this giant sea wall as part of the Jakarta Coastal Sea Defense project is not only to safeguard the northern coastline of Jakarta but also to make use of this project in an integrated manner for the future benefit of the city,” Fauzi said.

The giant sea wall, he said, will also serve as a reservoir to collect water from several rivers running through Jakarta.

“It is planned that water from 13 rivers in Jakarta ... will in the future not just be left to flow into the ocean. We will collect the water within the giant sea wall so that it can become a primary source of water for the city. This is in the long term,” Fauzi said.

To deal with a possible water shortage while the wall is being planned and built, Fauzi said city authorities would accelerate a pipeline plan to link Jakarta with the Jatiluhur reservoir in Purwakarta, West Java, and plan a desalination plant. The governor has previously referred to the plant a decades-long project.

The pipe network from Jatiluhur, the desalination plant and the reservoir formed by the giant sea wall would buttress the city against floods and protect it from water shortages, Fauzi said.

The giant wall has become increasingly urgent as land subsidence in Jakarta has worsening while sea levels have risen, he added.

Officials in Rotterdam, home to one of the world’s largest ports, have substantial experience in protective construction. Sitting below sea level, the city is built mostly behind dikes.

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Ministry eyes desalination technology to mitigate potential water crisis

The Jakarta Post,  Sun, 09/04/2011

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry has developed sea water desalination technology to convert sea water into fresh water to cope with the possibility of a water crisis.

“Making mineral water from the sea is a strategic step in anticipating the possibility of a clean water crisis in the future,” Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad said on Saturday, as reported by kompas.com.

The desalinated water could be a pivotal shift in fresh water supplies. The process could also produce salt.

According to the ministry, Indonesia has several potential locations where this technology could be developed. The areas include Nusa Penida and Gondol in Bali, Lombok Strait in West Nusa Tenggara, Biak Island in Papua and Pelabuhan Ratu in West Java.

Around 70 percent, or 5.8 million kilometers, of Indonesian territory is comprised of water.

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Operations Begin for New Bali Plant To Purify Sewage Into Usable Water

Jakarta Globe, Made Arya Kencana, August 11, 2011

Denpasar. Bali officially began operations at a water purification facility on Wednesday that turns treated sewage into clean, usable water.

“The Balinese people are worried about predictions that the island will suffer from a water crisis in 2015,” provincial regional secretary Made Jendra said at the plant’s opening. “This, at least, will be alleviated by the operation of this facility.”

Jendra said the treatment plant, which was a joint project of the central government, Denpasar administration, Badung district government and Japan International Cooperation Agency, would be able to produce 9,000 cubic meters of clean water every day, or more than 100 liters per second.

While that figure was far from the estimated 1,500 liters per second needed to avert a water crisis in 2015, he said clean water production would hopefully grow further with the completion of a sewage network project.

Goro Yasuda, director for overseas projects at Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism, said Bali would face a water crisis by 2015 because “the need for clean water vastly exceeds the capacity of the regional water company.”

Dewa Punia Asa, head of Bali’s public works office, said that so far only 8,647 households in Denpasar and Badung districts were linked to the first phase of the Denpasar Sewage Development Project. Those households are estimated to produce about 22,000 cubic meters of liquid waste a day.

A second phase, expected to be completed in 2014, is targeting 7,200 new connections, mostly hotels and restaurants in the tourist areas of Sanur, Kuta, Legian and Seminyak.

Tjok Bagus Budiana, who heads the province’s sewage management service, said the facility was designed to process as much as 51,000 cubic meters of liquid waste per day. It is built on a 17.5 hectare plot, 2.5 hectares of which is reserved for reservoirs to hold liquid waste.

He said households had to pay a monthly fee of Rp 15,000 to Rp 25,000 ($1.75 to $2.90) to be connected to the network. The fee, he added, would be higher for participating businesses.

ADB Provides $100 Million for Rural Infrastructure, Sanitation in Indonesia

ADB, 8 Aug 2011

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing Indonesia with a $100 million loan to finance community-driven projects that upgrade basic infrastructure in rural villages and improve sanitation services in poor urban neighborhoods.

The loan will expand ADB’s support for the National Program for Community Empowerment (PNPM Mandiri) for poverty reduction by providing direct assistance to poor communities.

While Indonesia has made significant progress in fighting poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), about 31 million people, many of them in rural areas, remain trapped in poverty. The causes of poverty include lack of access to basic services, absence of economic opportunities, limited access to capital, and poor rural connectivity and infrastructure.

About half of rural villages are not connected by asphalt road, and one in every ten villages are inaccessible at certain times of the year. In addition, only about half of the national population has access to improved sanitation. Consequently, some 30% of Indonesians suffer from water-borne diseases, including diarrhea and typhoid fever, that are linked to the use of untreated water and poor sanitation.

“The project will provide block grants directly to the communities to improve basic infrastructure facilities and sanitation services, including the construction of public baths, toilets and washing facilities, as well as waste treatment and disposal systems,” said Wolfgang Kubitzki, ADB Principal Social Sector Economist.

“Around 1.3 million people in rural communities and urban neighborhoods in nine provinces in Indonesia will benefit from the project,” he added.

The project will also improve the capacity of the communities to carry out their own design and implementation of the projects to ensure that the investments reflect the need of the communities and are sustainable.

The ADB loan, from its ordinary capital resources, covers about 73% of the total project cost of $135.6 million, with the government financing around 19% and beneficiaries providing the balance in the form of counterpart contributions to community investments.

The Ministry of Public Works is the executing agency for the project, which is due for completion around March 2015.

About ADB

Dutch to help build dikes in Indonesia

RNW, 6 July 2011

The Netherlands is to help with plans for a 36-kilometer dike around the Indonesian coastal city of Jakarta to protect the city from flooding.

Deputy Foreign Minister Ben Knapen has set aside 4 million euros in development aid for the project and two Dutch experts will be sent to help develop the plans. The dike will be build two kilometres into the sea so that land can be reclaimed for urban development.

“This investment in a master plan to protect Jakarta from the sea is a good example of the new development policy in which Dutch knowledge and skills can made a difference,” says Deputy Minister Knapen.

Jakarta is regularly hit by flooding. In 2007 large parts of the city were inundated by several meters of water. At least 18 people drowned and around 300,000 people become homeless. The economic damage was huge; the airport had to be closed as a result. Pumps have been installed as a short term solution and the road to the airport has been raised.

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