Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Biopore Infiltration Holes – A Flood Prevention Method for the Wet Season

Garis Hijau

Civilian self initiative to minimize flood in Indonesia. I believe this methode can be applied in other countries. Lets do little thing to make this world green...!!

Rain falls and floods inundate - these are common facts of life in most regions of our beloved country. When the rainy season sets in, the fear of floods also kicks in. However, that is not the only concern that people have faced lately: water scarcity is another immense problem confronting everyone when the wet season ends and the dry season begins.

It used to be that only those people living on riverbanks had to deal with floods. However, nowadays that is no longer the case: those who live on high ground must also contend with frequent inundations since the soil has lost its ability to absorb water due to illegal logging and the construction of environmentally unfriendly buildings.

We can do several things to reduce the intensity of yearly floods. First, plant lots of trees - this helps to preserve rainwater. Instead of cascading straight to the rivers, rainwater will be retained in tree roots, which function as a kind of reservoir during the dry season.

Second, manage your waste: proper waste disposal will reduce the occurrence of floods. If waste disposal is not managed properly, for example by dumping garbage on streets or into rivers, water sewers and canals will be blocked - the ultimate cause of floods during the wet season.

Third, build infiltration wells, which is the most suitable option for urban areas. The Jakarta Municipality Decree number 17/1992 (legalized as Jakarta municipality regulation number 17/1996), requires its citizens to build infiltration wells. However, since building infiltration wells is relatively expensive, most Jakarta citizens tend to ignore this regulation. It therefore comes as no surprise that people’s lack of awareness and participation, together with poor government regulation and legal enforcement, have caused floods to worsen every year.

The development of flood canals in the eastern and western parts of Jakarta is expected to reduce the frequency of floods. However, these canals cannot ensure that Jakarta will be free of floods altogether. People’s awareness still plays an important role in this matter; without it, floods will undoubtedly continue to inundate the city of Jakarta again and again.

A new method of flood prevention at a reasonable cost has recently arrived: unearthing soil to build biopore infiltration holes. Biopores are tunnels bored into the soil that enable organisms to become more active and plants to take root more easily. Such processes create hollow spaces inside the soil that are filled with air, and these air-filled spaces function as channels to absorb water more readily.

The more holes you bore, the better the soil can absorb water, and this minimizes the possibility of water inundating soil’s surface. As a result, flooding is reduced since the water is directly absorbed into the soil.

For optimal results, create biopores by digging vertically into the soil. Fill those holes with organic waste such as household organic scraps, cut grass and other vegetable matter. Through the composting process, these organic materials will gradually become a new source of energy for organisms inside the soil. Sufficient amounts of such organic byproducts will increase the activities of these organisms, which in turn generate even more bioporic tunnels.

Making biopore holes is more economical and less complicated than infiltration wells since they can function effectively in limited spaces. They can be created in office buildings, parks, backyards, parking spaces and in the bottom of drainage ditches. Since no sophisticated equipment is needed, they can even be dug by full-time housewives puttering around in the garden.

The biopore method was first devised in 1976 by Ir. Kamir Raziudin Brata, MSc, a researcher and lecturer at the Soil and Natural Resources Science Department in the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, West Java. He has been practicing and perfecting this environmentally enhancing approach for more than 20 years in his own neighborhood - long before it was finally introduced to the general public.

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