Building Water Sensitive Cities

Yesterday a new project to increase people awareness of water was launched. It is called water sensitive cities. It will be developed in Bogor. It is a project that held by Water Cluster AIC. This team consists of Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia University, and Monash University for project in Bogor. It also will be built in Surabaya by coordinating with Surabaya Institute of Technology.

Co-Leader Water Cluster AIC Hadi Susilo Arifin said that the first project will be held in Pulo Geulis, Central Bogor. Pulo Geulis is a place near Bogor Botanical Garden. It is really an unique place because that place was formed by delta. Based on their observe, that place is a slum area. People in there really depend on the river. Many activities are done in the river. However, they don't have any waste management. Some of their waste is thrown into the river and pollute it. 

Hadi said his team will make a research about people at this place first before deciding what to do for the next step. But he is planning to make some reservoir to recycle the waste so it can be used for watering plants. To increase the effectiveness of this program implementation, this team also asked other organization, businessman, and also the government.

City Governor of Bogor Bima really pleased with this project. He admits making a change in water management is not an easy task. The government needs a lot of help from the academician. He said that many citizens still have economy driven motive to accept a regulation rather than public interest. He hoped that by coordinating with others stakeholders government can influence people to aware of their environment especially water. "It's time for Bogor to come back to it's khitoh (pathway) as a green and smart city," he said.

By knowing this Hadi also said that he and his team will make a plan to develop economic sectors in the site project. "We can plan many plants that can be used by them," told Hadi.

Water sensitive cities was a project that had been done in Australia. Knowing the scarcity of water researcher in some college like Monash University start to wonder how to make cities more liveable. They start it by building a green park. This park not only functioning as rain recharge but also to reduce pollution of the river. "Everyone love park because it's beautiful, and not only that, it also multifunction," said Co-Leader Ana Deletic from Monash University.

She also said that by doing this we can conserve water resources cheaper than using the old fashion ways. By doing this, she said that people will participate to protect water.

Well, it is quite an interesting project to do. I hope this project last, and will give the best result. I think it is the first project to reconstruct system so can facilitate green living. After all, I've never seen water waste management implemented in a city. 

I'm looking forward to the progress~ 

source: google image