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United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Sustainable Development

Automated, Continuous, and Online Water Quality Monitoring (ONLIMO) for Effective Water Pollution Control

Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Republic of Indonesia (
Government
)
#SDGAction51084
Description
Description

Water is essential for every living being. It is crucial and underpins almost everything we do toward sustainable development. The right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right, as derived from the right to an adequate standard of living. As a result of growing population, expanding industrialization and economic growth, as well as increasing agricultural activities, water demand is therefore rising exponentially. The decline in environmental quality also remains a serious threat to ecosystem services, particularly in the provision of water, which is critical for ensuring food security as one of the key to the survival of the people. It is therefore achieving sustainable development goals, will be in line with improving environmental quality. Environment quality improvement has been carried out through various measures to control pollution and environmental degradation, both by the central government and local governments. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) as the central government has a specific mandate to—among others—carry out the management and improvement of environmental quality, through the implementation of comprehensive pollution and degradation control measures, including to increase water quality. In order to formulate effective policy and management interventions, water quality monitoring and assessment are indispensable in identifying water quality status, trends and its most critical impacts. Monitoring provides the objective evidence necessary to make sound decisions on managing water quality for today and for the future. Indonesia therefore is committed to scale-up the implementation of ONLIMO monitoring program. ONLIMO is an online and real-time water quality monitoring system using sensors integrated with data logger units, data transmission units and a software systems that is compatible for water quality monitoring in rivers, lakes, reservoirs, beaches and sea waters or even wastewater in industries. Measurements were made on the following parameters: Salinity, NO3, ORP, pH, NH4, Conductivity, COD, TDS, BOD, SWSG, DO, Turbidity, and Regularity. The technical consideration used to determine monitoring points for ONLIMO, including:
- Representing sources of pollution (point and non-point source);
- Located in the main outlets of watersheds;
- Located in the intake point of drinking water processing facilities;
- Located in the upstream with less to no influence of human intervention;
- Number of sampling units must represent a balance of upstream, mid, and downstream.

Expected Impact

Indonesia declared 15 priority watersheds to be rehabilitated in its 2015-2019 Mid-term Development Plan. Until 2022, at least 73 units of ONLIMO have been installed and fully operated in 13 priority watersheds using the central government’s budget. Whereas, additional 127 units have been installed from 2017-2022 using Special Allocation Fund for the local governments. The entire units are also fully integrated with the MoEF system and is expected to be integrated in the National Environmental Quality Assessment starting from 2023. The online and real time water quality data generated from the ONLIMO system is expected to make up the wider Water Quality Index composition, in order to:
- Rapidly demonstrate the trend of water quality changes/fluctuations;
- Provide early warning system in case of pollution events (emergency);
- Reduce the cost and time of sampling and lab analysis;
- Raise awareness of the general public to honor the right of information; and
- Reduce the risk of danger, accident and human error in sampling and lab analysis.

The monitoring will be the basis for intervention in order to improve the health and productivity of the community, supporting food and energy security, as well as ultimately supporting the achievement of SDG 6 of clean water and sanitation by improving access to safely managed drinking water and safely managed sanitation services.

Partners

Line ministries, Private sectors, General Public

False
Action Network
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Timeline
01 January 2015 (start date)
01 January 2030 (date of completion)
Entity
Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Republic of Indonesia
SDGs
Region
  1. Asia and Pacific
Other beneficiaries

Local communities

Countries
Indonesia
Indonesia
Contact Information

Witono, Deputy Director for Water Pollution Sources Control