Manado, Ekuatorial – North Sulawesi Environmental Agency on Friday (27/2) revealed that most of people’s wells were polluted resulted from increasing population and poor sanitation.
“We took samples from 12 wells randomly during 2014. As a result, they were showing poor water quality of their wells,” said Sonny Runtuwene, head of the agency adding that the laboratory’s result shown E-Coli level had passed its benchmark of 100 MPN/100 milliliter (mm). “Most have reached above 100 to 200 [MPN/mm], even some passed 900 MPN/mm.”
He said that polluted water well was caused by population and poor sanitation, such as dispose domestic waste and built toilet too near with the well. The ideal distance, he said, between the well and toilet was more than ten meters. “In addition, waste container should be made from concrete to make it watertight. It is so that people would not consume polluted water and risk being sick,” said Runtuwene citing Ranotana Weru, Sario, Tikala and Kampung Ternate districts as sample areas.
Veronica Kumurur of Manado’s Sam Ratulangi University said that poor sanitation which led to polluted water well was resulted from messy Manado spatial planning.
“[To solve] Poor spatial planning, [such as] water catchment areas turned into housing areas with poor sanitation require seriousness from local government in managing the city,” said Kumurur. Yoseph Ikanubun