That's a Jakarta Post headline that's stating the bleeding obvious; rain that doesn't go below ground stays on top. But it was the illustration with the accompanying article that first caught my eye.
This is my rendition of it.Or so he says. The question is, where does the water from Bogor go? If the 'Bojong Manik formation' prevents further water from entering the aquifer, then the absorption the far side of of it must mean that their water rises and flows over the top, thus adding to the groundwater this side. So this 'new' geological discovery in no way changes the perception that Bogor water helps to bugger up Jakarta.
What is more relevant, though, is that few wells in Jakarta have Bogor water in them. In other words, the rain on the Jakarta plain is the source. Cementing over water catchment areas obviously diminishes the supply in Jakarta's aquifer.
It is, therefore, time for City Hall's elected politicians and publicly-paid bureaucrats - our public servants - to stop mouthing evasive platitudes and to face up to the reality. It is their corrupt practices of allowing the development of housing estates and shopping malls on areas previously, and sensibly, designated as water catchment areas in the City Spatial Plan ~ vide Kelapa Gading and areas of West Jakarta ~ that is the cause of so much distress.
It's time for them to face up to their responsibilities.
Bi-lateral thinking?
Mr. Permadi, the mystical member of Parliament, is engaging a little more with what is sometimes called the reality-based world.
"From a spiritual perspective," he said, "there are two ways of looking at the flood. One of them is the bad karma of both national and local leaders.
"The other is that it is now rainy season."
It's good to know we have some intellectual parliamentarians.
