Indonesia moves to avoid water crisis

Indonesia is to develop seawater desalination projects in five islands of its Thousand Islands regency in a bid to head off a drought.

Thousand Islands regent, Budi Utomo, said that the projects were to be completed next year on Karya, Kelapa, Harapan, Tidung and Untung Jawa.

The Thousand Islands regency currently uses a groundwater reverse osmosis (RO) desalination facility. According to Budi, electricity networks have been installed for the desalination programmes. “We need more energy. The RO facility uses less energy than the [proposed] desalination facility, which will be used to turn seawater into freshwater.”

Meanwhile a water scarcity crisis has developed on Pari and Lancang islands according to reports from Kepulauan Seribu Selatan subdistrict Murta’a. Three RO facilities could no longer operate, following decreases due to raw water scarcity the reports said.