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B. Problems Presented by the Lake

The main problem is one of management of the resource (the lake). The lake is not managed at present. It is freely available to all and sundry who may wish to use it for their own purposes. There is no acceptance by some senior Government administrators that there is any need for management or ownership of the lake. Consequently there is no acknowledgement by any Government body of responsibility for management of the lake. The Public Works Water Resources Directorate in Jakarta rejects the responsibility for management of water bodies in general, in Java. They see their role as being to provide technical advice to other organisations about water and hydrological engineering.

There are few reliable recent data on the physics and chemistry of the water in the lake. There are even fewer biological data. There is no easy way to assess the conservation status of the lake at present. There has been no consistent, regular monitoring of the water chemistry or of any of the biological components of the lake ecosystem, nor of any of the relevant socio-economic parameters which might impact on the lake ecosystem

The actual volume of water flowing into the lake is uncertain as is the volume of water coming from springs in the catchment as well as in the lake itself. The water budget for the lake remains entirely speculative.

One major biological factor which has provided a focus of interest in the area is the spread of water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes) over the surface. This water plant, known locally as enceng gondok, was apparently introduced in the 1930s. It covers an area which has been estimated at various times as being 40% to 60% of the lake surface.

There is information, from experimental work elsewhere, on the rate of growth of enceng gondok on similar lakes, and it remains as a surprise that this water plant has not, over the course of 60 years, managed to spread over the entire surface of the lake. The reason for this is uncertain, but is considered below.

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