Key Challenges and Best Practices in Watershed Management in Indonesia: The Case of Citarum River Watershed

The Citarum River is the biggest and longest river in West Java, Indonesia. It spans 269 square kilometers (km2 ) in area and covers 11 administrative regions. With three cascade reservoirs that release a total volume of 7,650 million cubic meters per year, the national priority river provides 1,400 megawatts (MW) of electricity. It also irrigates about 420,000 hectares (ha) of agricultural land and supplies 80 percent of the domestic water demand for Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. 

However, the Citarum River basin (CRB) is now exposed to multiple hazards such as floods, drought/water shortage, landslide, high sedimentation, and water pollution, among others, Consequently, cliamte change and uncontrolled land uses are expected to worsen the watershed issues propagating in the basin.