Jakarta's water

1.According to the article, who is taking a lot of water out of the aquifer?
According to the article, the high rise buildings are taking a lot of the water from the water table (aquifer). The population is supposed to be spread out, but people are stacking up in a very small area, so there's not enough water for everyone.

2.If you take a lot of water from the aquifer, what three things happen?
First, if you keep sucking water from underground, then the land will go down, because the area that was water is gone, so there's a space underground. The land might not be able to hold the weight the buildings, so it lowers itself, making the buildings likely to crack. Also, because the population is so dense in one area, there's not going to be enough water for everyone.

3.What is the punishment for taking more water than your permit allows?
The punishment is five million rupiah and six months in jail.

4.Do you think this punishment will stop people taking too much water from the aquifer? Why?
I don't think that this law will stop people take the ground water, because five million rupiah is a small amount for high rise building managers/investors. There's also some 'relationship' problems in Indonesia, so the people who are taking too much water can simply avoid the jail.

5.Jakarta’s aquifers are being contaminated by sea water. What else is contaminating Jakarta’s groundwater?
Probably waste chemicals from factories, they might just dump chemical wastes in rivers, or even on land, then the chemicals will soak into the aquifer, polluting the ground water.

6.What evidence is there for the additional contamination in number 5?
The chemicals from factories have been traced in the ground water from wells. A lot of chemicals are radioactive, so they will decay and undergo partial decomposition reactions, leading to new hazardous chemicals, like dichloroethylene.

Water Vocabulary

Flow

Flow means for something to run smoothly, or for something to move. For water, Flow means to move with a continual change of place or circulate. For example, rivers flow from springs and lakes, tears flow from eyes.

Jakarta example: The flow in Jakarta's pipe lines might not flow very well, because there's things in the pipes that's blocking the way.

Groundwater

Groundwater is (normally drinkable) water located beneath the ground surface. Ground water is usually in the aquifer, where a large quantity of water is held. Ground water makes up about 20% of the world's fresh water resource. But pollutants may be dumped on the ground, which might work it's way into the ground water supply, making it unsafe to drink.

Jakarta example: Jakarta's groundwater (water table) is lowering, because there's not a lot of rain now, some cities are experiencing droughts.

Luxury

A luxury is something people desire, but don't need. It's much more expensive than necessary goods, the quality is normally better. Luxury can include cars, handbags, wine, and even chocolate.

Jakarta example: Water is considered a luxury in some places, because there's so little of it in Jakarta, and a lot of people needs it. In Jakarta Post, a man says that he spent one million Rupiah to buy seven bottles of water.







Management

Is normally the act of getting people together and achieving a goal. It may contain planning, organizing, resourcing, or directing.


Jakarta example: Jakarta doesn't seem to be managing their water properly, because some people can't even feel a problem, and some can never find any water.






Pressure

Pressure is the force per unit area applied to an object in a direction perpendicular to the surface. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric pressure. Water pressure is measured in Atmospheres or Bars. At sea level, the pressure is 1 Ata. At 10 meters deep, the water pressure is about 2 Bars.

Jakarta example: In Jakarta, the taps and showers are working well for apartments, but there might be problems in houses. If the water pressure is good, then the tap will run well, and theer will be enough water when you're showering. But some places don't have good water pressure, so it's hard to get water. There's not enough water for every one, so people at the end of the pipes often don't get water.

Water Myths

We have less water today than we did 100 years ago.

That isn't true. Out planet has the same amount of water now as we did 5.4 billion years ago. The water stayed on earth for the whole time and it will never go away, it's just that the water keeps changes state. People might think that water is disappearing because that the population of humans are growing, so there's not enough water to support so many people. (By the way, maybe the water in your coffee mug is the same water a dinosaur stepped on a few thousand years ago...)

If lead is in your water, it’s the treatment plant’s fault.

No, not really. The water treatment plant's job is to clean water, and it only takes care of the water in the plant. But if there's lead in the pipes underground, the water might take away some of the lead particles with it. Or maybe it's your own house. It might be an old house, so there's going to be more lead in your water. If you want to see if your water is safe enough to drink, ask the water safety organizations, they'll check the water and see if it's healthy enough.

Using a home water treatment device will make water healthier to drink.

Well, that might be true, if you take care of it and make sure it's working properly. But if you don't maintain it, then the water you drink is not going to be good. There might be a leak and some of your water leaks away, or there's too much lead in the pipes of the machine. You should maintain your home water treatment device regularly if you have one, then it should be guaranteed that there's going to be no problem.