Written by Sekar Ningtyas Kinasih, Content Writer
Project Child Indonesia
The complexity of the water source’s problem in Yogyakarta still requires further countermeasures addressed to the local government, communities, as well as certain groups who’ve been involved in the development of government project. As stated in 2016 by one of the senior researchers from Pusat Penelitian Limnologi Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan (LIPI), the rampant towards hotel constructions and apartments, deficiency of soil conservation, alteration of land’s usage for agriculture to non-agriculture–are becoming the main cause of water crisis in Yogyakarta, coupled with some other aggravating factors that lead to the lowering of clean water such as the waste of households, large industries and excessive consumption of water.
The awareness towards water as the essential substance for human survival has become the foremost reason to the Drinking Water Program establishment which has been carried out since 2016 to several schools by Project Child Indonesia– as well as a tangible evidence of supporting towards implementation of the 6th goal of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) which ensuring the availability of clean water, achieving universal access to basic sanitation at every level of society in 2030. Right on July 2019, Project Child Indonesia held another Drinking Water Program socialization with 5 new partner schools that are Cokrokusuman elementary school, Sayidan elementary school, Karangmulyo elementary school, Ngupasan elementary school, Wirosaban elementary school, which also attended by other 22 partner school representatives and 3 representatives of Education and Culture Services, Health Services and Environmental Services of Yogyakarta.
Not only promoting on how the DWP is capable to raise the affordability of access to adequate drinking water for the children, on the same occasion the seminar facilitator also provided information regarding water quality standardization according to the Health and Environmental Services through the following 3 main parameters:
Requirements based on Physics
Good quality water have to fulfil some physics requirements such as:
- Water must be clean (clearness) – generally, cloudy water is caused by clay’s colloidal granules.
- Colorless and not contain harmful substances that threaten to health.
- Tasteless – if the water is physically salty, sweet or bitter, it determines that the water is not suitable for consumption.
- Odorless – stinky water condition indicates decomposition of organic substance by water microorganisms.
- Normal temperature – make sure the water is not in the high temperature (hot) that usually caused by dissolving chemicals in the pipeline and leading to health risks.
- The value of Total Dissolved Solid (TDS) does not exceed 1000 for clean water and 100 for drinking water.
Requirements Based on Chemical
There are some other chemical requirements that need to be considered as follows:
- pH (scale of acidity) – the acidity level within water generally formed due to the dissolution of gas oxide (carbon dioxide)– then it requires the pH content on a scale of 6 to 8 so that the chemical will not form into a poison that can cause to the health risks.
- Iron (Fe) – water conditions that possess an iron content of more than 0.1 mg physically characterized by water colours that tend to be yellow and tastes a bit like metal. This is clearly would lead to body’s disorders.
- Hardness – hardness is formed by the presence of sulfate and carbonate, chloride and nitrate from magnesium, calcium, iron and aluminium. Make sure that the level of hardness in the water does not exceed 500 mg/l to prevent the formation of white crust layers on the kitchen appliances, corrosivity in the water pipes and the possibility of stomach nausea.
- Nitrate and Nitrite – the pollution of these two substances, mostly comes from soil and plants, which the excessive amounts in the water would block the oxygen flow within the body.
- Lead (Pb) – water pollution commonly caused by a lead metal (Pb) which then trigger to risk of kidney, liver, brain and to the worst risk like death– therefore this substance should be avoided.
Requirements based on Microbiology
Reassuring the drinking water should not contaminate of E. coli (Escherichia Coli) that is known as one of the pathogenic bacteria that causes digestive disorders such as diarrhea and vomiting. While there is also another Coliforms that must be avoided like Salmonella Typhi which triggers typhoid fever (typhus). Whenever these bacteria enter the body, several digestive disorders might occur through certain symptoms such as fever, headache, abdominal pain and decreased appetite.
Implementation of a feasibility test of clean water according to the standardization of Health and Environmental Services is becoming necessary as guaranteed that every level of society is worth to have a decent water to complete life aspects at the whole and free from the health threats. The enforcement of Drinking Water Program counted as a commitment that hopefully turned out to be a solution of fulfilling the goals of SDG– along with the rising of citizen’s awareness in taking preventive steps toward water pollution on a daily basis, such as use minimum amount of detergent, not throwing litter into rivers, not exploiting springs, optimizing the restoration of critical land and converted into an underground water conservation and using water efficiently.
Sources:
- www.kelair.bppt.go.id/Publikasi/BukuKesmas/BAB1.pdf
- https://thewaterproject.org/water-scarcity/health-implicatios-of-e-coli
- https://www.academia.edu/9496338/STANDAR_KUALITAS_AIR_MINUM_INDONESIA
