DEVELOPMENT OF TIDAL LOWLANDS

Potentials and Constraints of The Tidal Lowlands of Indonesia

Prof. Bart Schultz PhD, MSc1

Abstract

Tidal lowlands are by their nature generally unsuitable for development. This is mainly caused by the soil conditions, waterlogging, regular, or even permanent inundation and environmental values. However, because of their potential for agricultural development, shortage of land in densely populated countries and generally strategic location, there is in many cases an enormous pressure to develop these areas. Due to physical conditions complicated systems and structures may be required, generally resulting in relatively high development costs, while, where applicable, due to the sensitive environmental situation, a careful development and management approach has to be chosen. Therefore in decisions on the development of tidal lowlands the balance will have to be found between the needs of society, acceptable environmental impacts and a sustainable development.

In this presentation various aspects of the development and management of tidal lowlands in Indonesia are reviewed. It is illustrated to which extend the new developments in the reclaimed areas and reclamation of other suitable tidal lowland areas can contribute to the Government policy of self-sufficiency in basic food crops, urban and industrial development. Among others, this is based on the policy of the Government and the experiences in the program Land and Water Management Tidal Lowlands (LWMTL).

Introduction

Lowlands in the humid tropical zone are by their nature generally unsuitable for development. This is mainly caused by the soil conditions, waterlogging, regular, or even permanent inundation and environmental values. However, because of their potential for agricultural development, shortage of land in densely populated countries and generally strategic location, there is in many cases an enormous pressure to develop these areas. Therefore development of lowlands is pursued in many countries all over the world as a way of relieving land pressure (Suryadi, 1996 and Schultz, 2001). If properly planned and implemented, among others, taking into account the conservation of important vulnerable ecosystems, development of lowlands may have important short and long-term advantages compared to development of upland areas. Due to physical conditions complicated systems and structures may be required, generally resulting in relatively high development costs, while, where applicable, due to the sensitive environmental situation, a careful development and management approach has to be chosen. Therefore in decisions on the development of tidal lowlands the balance will have to be found between the needs of society, acceptable environmental impacts and a sustainable development.

1 Top advisor, Rijkswaterstaat, Civil Engineering Division, Utrecht, the NetherlandsProfessor of Land and Water Development, UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the NetherlandsPresident Honoraire of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID)

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In this presentation various aspects of the development and management of tidal lowlands in Indonesia will be reviewed. Attention will be paid to the need for development of such areas and the constraints that have to be dealt with. It will be illustrated to which extend the development of such areas can contribute to the policy of self-sufficiency in basic food crops, urban and industrial development. Crucial for the sustainable development of tidal lowlands are adequate water management and, where required, flood protection schemes, as well as the operation and maintenance of such schemes. With the above in mind an outlook on possible future directions will be given as well. Among others, this will be based on the policy of the Indonesian Government (Suprapto, 2002) and experiences in the program Land and Water Management Tidal Lowlands (LWMTL) (Hartoyo Suprianto, et al., 2006).

Tidal Lowlands in Indonesia

Indonesia avails over large lowland areas with an estimated total area of about 33.4 million ha. From a hydrological point of view three typical types of lowlands can be distinguished:– tidal lowlands (pasang surut). These lowlands are located along the coasts and lower

reaches of rivers in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Papua and some other islands, where the river regimes are dominated by the tidal fluctuations. They include a generally narrow zone of mangrove, followed by extensive fresh water swamps. Land elevations are generally around the tidal high water level. From a water management point of view these areas are characterised by shallow inundation in the wet season, caused mainly by stagnant rainwater. The daily low tide in the rivers offers in principle good opportunities for drainage of excess water. In certain areas the high tides offer opportunities for tidal irrigation;

– non-tidal lowlands (lebak). Beyond the zone of tidal lowlands seasonal fluctuations in river water levels are more pronounced and may cause deep inundation of lands in the wet season. The absence of daily low water in the rivers requires adapted approaches for drainage. In many cases flood protection will be required;

– inland swamp areas. These areas are separated from the above lowlands by surrounding uplands. These swamps cover relatively small areas.

The tidal lowlands cover about 20 million ha. Out of this 20 million ha, about 4 million ha have now been reclaimed partly by spontaneous settlers (more than 2.5 million ha) and partly by the government (about 1.3 million ha). The potential for additional reclamations is about 4 million ha (Land and Water Management Tidal Lowlands, 2006a and Hartoyo Suprianto, et al., 2006).

In the lowlands the top layers consist of (potential) fertile clay soils, (potential) acid sulphate soils, or peat soils. Especially the (potential) fertile clay soils are suitable for reclamation and development. The (potential) acid sulphate soils may be suitable for reclamation and development as well, however, after reclamation oxidation of pyrite will occur, which will require a very careful water management approach, especially in the initial years. Peat soils are generally unsuitable for development due to the rapid oxidation of organic materials. In the humid tropical region this causes a rapid subsidence (10 – 15 cm/year) and will generally require drainage by pumping 10 – 20 years after the initial reclamation, which is generally unaffordable.

Although in many of the reclaimed areas the conditions have substantially improved compared to the initial situation directly after reclamation (Figure 1), based on experience in practice over the last 20 years, the following constraints have been identified (Hartoyo Suprianto, 2004):

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need for lowland conservation; need for development priority; insufficient institutional capability; inadequate water management and related hydraulic infrastructure; inadequate operation and maintenance of the water management systems.

Figure 1. Original wooden settlers house and a present stone house of one of the better farmers

Evaluation of The History of Lowland Development

In most lowland development programs the government plays an important role, as she initiates developments that fit in her development policy, and by preventing unwanted developments. Since 1960 the Indonesian Government has been involved in the reclamation of tidal lowlands. The reclamation was generally based on a gradual long-term process, which involved: Phase I subsistence farming, rainfed agriculture, one food crop annually, open,

uncontrolled canal systems and transportation mainly boats; Phase II intermediate economic land farming, more than one crop annually, mainly

rainfed agriculture, agro-processing industry, semi-closed drainage system, internal road system and trans-area transport

Phase III commercial farming, multiple cropping and integrated farming, sustained economic growth, industrial development, fully controlled water management system and finalised road infrastructure.

From 1985 - 1995 there were almost no new reclamations, main focus was on improvement (phase II) of reclaimed areas.

From 1996 – 1998 new reclamations were implemented in South and Central Kalimantan, mainly in river flood plains. While these reclamations were not very successful and there was a change in government, the reclamations came to an end. Since then there have only been reclamations by spontaneous settlers and several activities and programs in already reclaimed areas.

Due to the need to increase food production and the on-going urbanisation and industrialisation for which agricultural land is taken out of production, it will be a must for the Indonesian Government to undertake new reclamations in future, together with phase II and later phase III developments, mechanisation in agriculture, and larger scale farming in the already reclaimed areas. The actual roles of the Government in the framework of these developments may be subject to further considerations.The historic development of lowlands shows that new developments can only be successful when there is a strong motivation (population pressure, need for agricultural

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expansion, favourable economic prospects, need for development activities during times of recession, strategic considerations), a strong community and political stability. A clear hierarchical system and a highly organized society are essential boundary conditions, not only for the implementation, but also for the operation and maintenance phase. The ability to organize a well functioning management system often determines the success and lifetime of large infrastructure works and, in relation to that, the duration of civilization itself.New lowland areas can be developed when a Government promotes such an activity within the framework of a countrywide or regional development policy. Institution building is of paramount importance for lowland development, operation and maintenance, as well as a sound coordination of all activities and a clear description of parties’ responsibilities (farmers, inhabitants, water management authority, local and central government) are required. Master plans, legislation, institution development are examples of possible means to realize integration of all relevant aspects of life related to water use.

Factors that contribute to the success of lowland development projects

Planning of all aspects in a lowland development project, like agriculture (farm units, land parcelling) and related activities, urban development, industries, forests, recreation, and their related requirements for irrigation and drainage, fresh water supplies, etc. is strongly interrelated. This interrelationship would have to be the basis for planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance and management, which requires close cooperation and coordinated efforts of people of several disciplines working together (Pranich, 1982). There are a number of principles, which may be of wider relevance: in case lowland development projects are primarily aiming at increasing the agricultural

production, they need to be regarded mainly as agricultural development projects rather than engineering projects. This implies that: soil scientists, agronomists, agro-economists and agricultural extension specialists

would have a high input in project identification, design, appraisal and implementation;

in cultivated areas, the opinions of the farmers in proposed project areas need to be sought in advance regarding feasible improvement measures with proposed project inputs;

where a project would greatly alter existing agro-ecological conditions, which usually is the case with lowland development projects, possible new crops or cropping patterns need to be tested and demonstrated in pilot areas before the full project is implemented;

objections from those whose livelihood might suffer as a result of project implementation need to be considered with a view either to modifying the project design so as to remove their objections or to provide them with adequate alternatives or compensation;

as new lowland reclamation and development is generally an expensive activity, projects need to be regarded as a development of last resort. This means that governments would have to use alternative, cheaper agricultural development modes wherever possible, until lowland development becomes the most economic mode remaining available;

soil and crop conditions on different agro-ecological land types within reclaimed areas need to be monitored regularly to provide early warnings of any physical, chemical or biological problems, which may develop. Similarly, agro-economic surveys need to be made regularly and, where necessary, appropriate changes would have to be made in project design, operation or changes to ensure that both farmers and project authorities can achieve profitable returns;

either at national or provincial and district level, land use regulations need to be made and enforced, which will ensure that settlement and industry do not spread

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unnecessarily onto valuable agricultural land.

Factors that contribute to the failure of lowland development projects

It is worthwhile to examine the reasons why in several cases lowland development has been substantially below expectation. An important reason undoubtedly is that the plans were too narrow in concept and focus. Generally, plans were primarily civil engineering plans and not agricultural development plans. The engineering projects were considered to provide a panacea for agricultural development.

Need for development of tidal lowlands in Indonesia

During the last decades the increase in food production could be realised by: the introduction of High Yielding Varieties of rice (HYV), improvement of water management systems and reclamation of uplands and lowlands. The required further increase in food production will mainly have to be achieved by: higher yields at existing agricultural lands, both the traditional lands and the recently

reclaimed lowlands and uplands; reclamation of new land, main possibilities seem to be in the lowlands.

The original objectives of tidal lowland development in Indonesia were, among others, to support the transmigration program and to increase food crop (rice) production. In the recently reformulated policy of the Indonesian Government, one of the main objectives of tidal lowland development is to contribute to the required increase food production (Suriadikarta, et al., 2001 and Suprapto, 2002). The tidal lowlands will primarily have to contribute to the required increase in rice production to maintain self-sufficiency in rice. This need is caused by the fact that during last years Indonesia could not maintain its position of self-sufficiency. Droughts in 1991, 1994 and 1997 resulted in a required import of 4,5 million tons of rice in each of these years, in addition import of rice in 1995 was 1.8 million tons and in 1996 2.2 million tons. The deficit in self-sufficiency is mainly caused by the: increase in population; increase in the consumption per person; loss of agricultural land due to urbanisation and industrialisation (annually 40,000 -

50,000 ha) environmental considerations; degeneration of existing irrigation and drainage systems.

Some characteristic figures are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Some Characteristic Figures on Population and Population Growth

Area in Million Ha

Paddy Rice Area in

Million Ha

Population in MillionPopulation Density in Persons per Km2 with

Respect to

2005 2025 2050Total Area

Paddy Rice Area

Java 13 3.3 120 142*) 153*) 923 3,636Other Isles 178 5.2 103 122*) 132*) 58 1,980Indonesia 191 8.5 223 264 285 117 2,623Asia 3,177 133 3,927 4,752 5,240 124 2,950World 13,271 148 6,487 7,930 9,100 49 4,383

(BAPPENAS et al., 2002, Schultz, et al., 2005, International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, 2006)

*) Computed, based on the same ratio as Indonesia

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Constraints for Development

Constraints for development are first of all caused by the existing values of the tidal lowlands. These values may concern environmental values, economic values and hydrologic values. Potential areas for reclamation are in many cases very dynamic and productive ecosystems. They are often closely related with each other so that reclamation works in one area can have consequences in others, even those far away. In decision-making on the development of tidal lowlands these values properly have to be taken into account. A good practice is in general to consider the non-project development, the development potential of the existing values and the reclamation options in parallel and to compare the advantages and disadvantages of each scenario. In the design and layout of new reclamation projects one has to consider possible impacts on the environment. The existing economic values are generally limited, may be with the exception of the values for fishing and aquaculture. When such values play an important role, they have to be properly taken into account in the analyses on optimal development options. Related to hydrologic values, reclamation generally implies the removal of storage during extreme events. Special provisions and approaches may have to be required to cope with these aspects.

The effects of climate changes may sooner or later influence reclaimed tidal lowlands. However, it is difficult to predict the effects of climatic changes on a regional scale. It is, for example, almost impossible to predict whether local storm frequencies will increase or decrease. Consequently, changes in patterns of storm surges and wave attack are unknown. It is also not clear which parts of the climate changes are caused by natural phenomena, and which parts are men induced. Related to the development of tidal lowlands climate change may have three relevant consequences: increase in total annual rainfall and extreme rainfalls; increase in total annual river discharge, changes in the distribution of discharge over

the year and increase in extreme discharges; rise in the mean sea level.

Estimates for the increases in rainfall and river discharges are generally in the order of magnitude of 10 - 15% over the next 100 years. The most recent forecasts expect a sea level rise between 0.09 and 0.88 m in the next 100 years.

Reclaimed tidal lowlands may be subject to flooding. Although increasingly climate change is referred to as the cause of such flooding, one should strongly wonder whether this is indeed the case. Many of these reclaimed areas show nowadays a high level of agricultural exploitation, or are densely populated and experience rapid population and economic growth. The man-induced changes, such as removal of storage by impoldering, groundwater extraction, uncontrolled land reclamation, and inadequate land use planning, may increase the vulnerability of tidal lowlands. It therefore can be stated that men induced changes in tidal lowlands have a significantly larger impact on damage due to heavy rainfalls and floods than climate changes have.

Reclamation and Development of Tidal Lowlands

Reclamation of tidal lowlands involves a deliberate change of the environmental conditions of an area. Since these areas have a natural function in the hydrological cycle a change in the conditions may entail repercussions on the hydrology of the adjacent

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areas, like increase of flood levels, or silting-up of riverbeds. The type of area indicates the type of hydraulic and hydrological issues that may arise in case of reclamation. Development is relatively easy in the case no storm surges occur along the coast and when the tidal land has attained the maximum possible elevation, which is generally slightly above mean high tide level.

In several cases, or in the long run, development of tidal lowlands involves polder development (Segeren, 1983). Dependent on the number of people living in the reclaimed area and the economic value of crops, buildings, infrastructure, public facilities and private property requirements will have to be put to the functioning of water management and flood protection schemes. These requirements will generally increase in due time while due to further development the population density and the value of public and private property will increase.

Hydro-topographical conditions of tidal lowlands are of significant importance for the approach towards reclamation and development. These conditions are defined as the field elevation in relation to river, or canal water levels in the nearest open water system (Suryadi, 1996). Four hydro-topographic classes are generally distinguished in the tidal lowlands of Indonesia: Category A (tidal irrigated areas). The fields can be flooded by the tides at least 4 or

5 times during a 14-day neap-spring tidal cycle in both the wet and the dry season. These areas are situated mostly in depressions, or close to river mouths;

Category B (periodically tidal irrigated areas). The fields can be flooded by the tides at least 4 or 5 times during a 14-day neap-spring tidal cycle in the wet season only;

Category C (areas just above tidal high water). The fields cannot be regularly flooded during high tide. The groundwater table may still be influenced by the tides. The relatively high elevation may cause significant percolation, making it difficult, or impossible to keep a water layer on the field for rice cultivation. Therefore, dry food crops and tree crops can better be grown on such lowlands, at least during the dry season;

Category D (area 50 cm above tidal high water). The fields are entirely above tidal influence. Dry food crops and tree crops are best suited to these areas. Except for areas receiving extra water from bordering uplands and/or peat domes which are used usually for wetland rice.

Alternative development models

Various development models for tidal lowland areas are possible, which may each be appropriate under different conditions. The models range from small scale farming to large-scale estates, with all kinds of combinations in between. The approaches may basically be classified in: rapid, or slow; large-scale, or small scale; direct, or in phases.

In practice an area will be developed by a certain combination of the above items. However, some general items are valid in any development model, being: with the determination of the level of service the basis for the success of a project is

established. If the level is to high, generally the costs will also be too high, and it will be impossible to recover these costs. If the level is too low, the beneficiaries will not accept their new conditions and don’t start with the foreseen activities, generally resulting in a much lower feasibility than forecasted;

rapid, large-scale development projects, often have the negative result, that they are

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too complicated for the future beneficiaries and institutions. Therefore the maintenance and management may be below standard, resulting in deterioration of the projects;

with a careful selection of future beneficiaries, large-scale projects may be successful, while these beneficiaries will do their utmost to make the best of it.

Reclamation may be carried out in a relatively short period, over some years, or gradually as a long-term phased development process. Overall planning of reclamation works for tidal lowlands is very important, firstly because of the intimate relation between flood protection, drainage and irrigation and the large degree of mutual influence of these works on various parts of the tidal lowland, and secondly because adequate water management in a reclaimed tidal lowland can generally only be achieved by comprehensive large-scale measures. Master plans, subject to periodic revision to make allowance for the actual execution of the partial schemes as dictated by the economic conditions and to make allowance for progress in technical methods, may be a useful tool to effectively guide development.

So far the tidal lowland development in Indonesia has generally followed a phased approach and focus has been on the settling of poor farmers.

Water Management and Flood Protection in Reclaimed Tidal Lowlands in Indonesia

In order to enable an adequate water management in the reclaimed areas a lay out, consisting of open primary, secondary and tertiary canals has been installed during reclamation. This may be completed with quaternary, or on-farm canals. The primary canals are generally located between two river branches. Different types of schemes have been developed in different areas, but some characteristic cross-sections of the canals are shown in Figure 2 (Suryadi, 1996). Although generally improvements have been obtained in several of the reclaimed tidal lowlands, most of the areas are still in their initial phase with open canal systems. In this phase farmers can only take care for on-farm water management and no water management measures can be taken in the higher level canals, although an adequate maintenance will be of utmost importance to keep the canals in a good condition.

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Figure 2 Principal cross-sections of canals in reclaimed tidal lowlands in Indonesia

In several other schemes water control structures have been installed in the tertiary and/or secondary canals. Due to various reasons, in most of the schemes where water control structures have been installed, the operation and maintenance of these structures has so far been inadequate and as a result, the agricultural output is below expectation. To improve the water management agreed operation rules for the hydraulic infrastructure have to be developed and applied for each tidal lowland scheme. Examples of such rules have been given in three technical guidelines that have been developed in the framework of the LWMTL program (Land and Water Management Tidal Lowlands, 2005 and 2006a, b and c). In order to develop and implement such rules a participatory approach is required.

Water management in the tidal lowlands, which becomes possible after water control structures have been installed, aims first of all at realising optimal agricultural yields. For that purpose, the hydraulic infrastructure of canals and water control structures plays a crucial role, not only for drainage and navigation and locally for irrigation, but also to stimulate soil ripening processes and, where applicable, leaching of acid and toxic elements from the soils. This implies that stagnant water has to be avoided. In general, water management takes place at two levels:– on-farm water management. Water management at the field level, which has the

following objectives: improve the land conditions in the tidal lowlands; increase food production to contribute to food self-sufficiency, especially of rice; to enable an increase in cropping intensity and land productivity; to enable crop diversification;

main system water management. The main system generally consists of primary, secondary and tertiary canals. As said the tertiary and secondary canals may be provided with water control structures. The main system may also have other objectives, such as transportation and domestic water supply. An example of a secondary block with water control structures is given in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Example of a secondary block with water control structures

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Experiences obtained in the LWMTL program

In a bilateral cooperation between Indonesia and the Netherlands the LWMTL program is being implemented. LWMTL aims at the improvement of the existing agricultural exploitation, among others by establishing water user associations, upgrading of the hydraulic infrastructure, improved agricultural practices and post harvest activities, transfer of knowledge and manpower development. The approach is developed and applied in three pilot areas - each covering a secondary block of about 250 ha - in the Musi Delta, South Sumatra. Two pilot areas are located in the Telang I area and the third pilot area is located in the Saleh area (Hartoyo Suprianto, et al., 2006).The program targets the Water Users Associations (P3A) in respect to water management, operation and maintenance (O&M) with a fully participatory approach. The program is also contributing to planning, budgeting and implementation of the needed hydraulic infrastructure by government Agencies. Together with farmers, solutions are being found for logistic and financial problems related to technology development for mechanized food crop production aiming at two crops per year. The LWMTL program is an integrated part of the activities of the government supported Rice Estate project in tidal lowlands, South Sumatra Province, Kabupaten (Regency) of Banyuasin. Use is made of a dry processing facility that recently has been constructed by the Logistic Bureau (BULOG) in the Telang I area as shown in Figure 4.The program is supported by the Indonesian Ministries of Public Works and of Agriculture (Agricultural Facilities, Irrigation and Water Management) and the Netherlands Ministries Foreign Affairs (Directorate General for International Cooperation, PBSI program) and Transport, Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat).

Figure 4 The dry processing facility of BULOG in the Telang I area

Based on the potentials and constraints, the objectives of the LWMTL program were

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defined as follows:– to pioneer the empowerment, representation and responsibilities of farmers in the

context of lowland development, decentralization, water sector reforms and basin management;

– to allow a micro level approach in solving diverse constraints at field level;– to review and improve operation and maintenance of water management systems

with a farmers’ participatory approach.

In order to achieve the objectives, among others, in close cooperation with the farmers and the government organisations, improved water management, operation and maintenance practices are promoted in the three pilot areas. Some upgrading and simple repair of the water control structures has been carried out in these areas. An example of an upgraded water control structure in a tertiary canal is presented in Figure 5. An example of the present field conditions under the LWMTL program is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 5. Example of an upgraded water control structure

Figure 6. Example of field conditions in one of the pilot areas of the LWMTL program

An important achievement of the program has been that the Water Users Associations (P3A) in the three pilot areas have been reactivated and that the chairmen of these P3As have received their legal documents. This enables them, among others, to obtain loans from banks and enter into contracts with the government and other parties. Another important achievement is that the yields of the farmers have substantially improved. Yields of the first rice crop have increased to about 6 tons/ha, with peaks of 8 tons/ha. Several farmers have made a start with a second rice, or dry food crop. Here yields up to 3 tons/ha have been reported. Due to the drying facility of BULOG (Figure 4) and supplies submitted by the TAM program of the Ministry of Agriculture the farmers can get a substantially better price for their rice. It has also been observed that several farmers have enlarged their farm size by obtaining land from farmers that could not succeed and have left their land. This year there has been the introduction of harvesting by a combine. It is expected that combines will be applied at a much larger scale in the near future.

The water management system has different functions. During the wet season the drainage function will dominate and during the dry season the irrigation and flushing function will have to dominate. These functions will have to be fulfilled in such a way that the water levels in the tertiary and secondary canals remain at acceptable levels. In general the design criteria for water management schemes for reclaimed lowlands are developed as follows:

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preferred normal conditions. These are the conditions one would like to maintain in the tertiary and the secondary canals. They result in a preferred water level, or water levels and operation rules for the movable flapgates in the tertiary canals and the drainage flapgates and sliding gates in the secondary canals (Figure 3). The criteria are strongly linked to the soil type and cropping pattern (Land and Water Management Tidal Lowlands, 2006b). For the groundwater control function it is important to know the desired groundwater table under normal conditions;

design conditions. These are the conditions on which the design of the canals and water control structures would have to be based. In general they are formulated as: exceedance of the preferred water levels; duration of the exceedance; return period for which the prescribed exceedance occurs;

extreme conditions. Although this is generally not a design criterion, control computations can be made in order to analyse what may happen during extreme situations.

Operation and maintenance of systems in reclaimed tidal lowlands

The functioning of water management systems in reclaimed tidal lowlands strongly determines the living and production conditions in these areas and are therefore of crucial importance. Therefore the arrangements for operation and maintenance have to be very well understood and agreed upon by the parties involved in the scheme (Figure 7).

RESPONSIBLE CONTRIBUTING

Figure 7. Indicative schematisation of actors in lowland water management systems in Indonesia

Regarding the operation of water management systems there is generally the advantage of the tidal fluctuation, which may enable inlet of water during the high tide period, and discharge of water during the low tide period. Such an operation will, however, only be possible if inlet and outlet (flap, or sliding) gates are opened and closed either automatic, or promptly in time.

For proper operation and maintenance of the structures and canals it will be required that the farmers and water user association (P3A) maintain the tertiary and quaternary canals and related water control structure and that Public Works at District level maintains the primary and secondary canals and related water control structures. In order to achieve the objectives, first of all an agreement on the required water management is needed

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and the water control structures in the tertiary and secondary canals have to be operated in such a way that such a water management can be achieved. In the secondary canals a distinction is made between SDU (Saluran Sekunder Drainasi Utama) and SPD (Saluran Sekunder Pedesaan/Saluran Pensuplai Desa). In the pilot areas the SDUs are generally located 980 m away from the home yards and SPDs along the home yards and also be used for households. A tertiary block covers 16 ha, which belong in principle to 8 farmers (2 ha each). However, as said, in quite some of the tertiary blocks farmers have sold their land to other farmers, resulting in often a lower number of farmers in a tertiary block, with a larger area per farm.

Future Developments and Directions

In formulating future developments and directions a distinction will have to be made in the improvement of the existing schemes, the reclamation of new areas and the conservation of areas not to be reclaimed.

Improvement of existing schemes

Related to the improvement of existing schemes quite some experiences are available now (Hartoyo Suprianto, et al., 2006). Based on these experiences the following may be considered: The first priority would have to be to make better use of the developed infrastructure

by a better operation and maintenance, both at on-farm and main system level. This means: for the areas where structures have been installed:

reach agreement with the farmers on their share in the actual maintenance and maintenance costs and develop clear rules for operation of the structures;

monitoring of the operation of the structures, the resulting water levels, the crop yields and the execution of the maintenance in certain representative areas. The obtained information would have to be the basis of feasibility studies for future second phase development projects;

realise sufficient government budget for operation and maintenance at primary and secondary level (Land and Water Management Tidal Lowlands 2006c);

for the areas that are considered for second phase development: execute feasibility studies in close consultation with the local representatives

and the farmers; only start with implementation if agreement has been reached with the farmers

on their share in the actual maintenance and the maintenance costs and when clear rules for operation of the structures have been established;

support the farmers in improving their agricultural practices, crop diversification and post harvest activities;

socio-economic aspects. To obtain the optimum positive effects of investments in tidal lowlands and to avoid/diminish negative implications, it is more and more realised that a socio-economic analysis of the works would have to be included from the first planning stages onwards. The factors that determine the rate of success of lowland development projects and which would have to be included in such an analysis are: experience with lowland development; mechanisation rate; technical know-how, skills and experience in operation and maintenance; employment conditions and customs of employers and employees; wage levels and wage structures.

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In case of a wrong or neglected assessment, these factors can very seriously affect costs, duration and success of a tidal lowland development project.In Asian countries for centuries farmers have cultivated 1 ha or less. The growth of industries and commercial activities, and the resulting increase in wages for labourers, make the small scale farming less and less attractive. Farmers become labourers in the factories and service sectors. Farming may remain feasible when mechanization is introduced and farm sizes are increased. This phenomenon can be observed in countries like: Korea, Malaysia and Thailand and has also started in the tidal lowlands of Indonesia. The lowlands with their flat topography and rational lay out are very well suited to cope with such developments. On the one hand this will most probably result in new land consolidation schemes for already reclaimed lowland areas, on the other hand this will most probably give a new push to reclamation of lowlands. These developments will increasingly take place in a sensitive balance between the required increase in agricultural production and environmentally acceptable practices;

post harvest processing and marketing conditions may have a substantial impact on the final result that the farmers may obtain. Therefore these aspects need to be properly addressed;

so far the infrastructure in the tidal lowlands has predominantly been a water infrastructure. It may be expected that increasingly a road infrastructure will have to be developed;

facilities, like schools, medical care, agricultural extension, hospitals, etc. will remain to play a major role in the living conditions of the settlers and would have to be timely provided by government.

New tidal lowland reclamation projects

In general terms the areas that have a potential for reclamation have been identified in the Nation wide study of 1984 (NEDECO, 1984). It may be expected that sooner, or later the remaining potential tidal lowland areas (about 4 million ha) will be reclaimed. This is still a very substantial area compared to the present area with paddy rice of about 8.5 million ha. In order to prevent non-optimal investments and unnecessary environmental damage as much as possible it is recommended to develop a strategy for future lowland development. The strategy would especially have to give insight in the following aspects: importance and potential of the lowlands for food production; conditions and constraints in the reclaimed areas; most effective improvement measures in the reclaimed areas; most suitable areas for new reclamations; identification of areas that should not be reclaimed; most feasible reclamation approaches; phasing of developments.

Based on the developed strategy studies at pre-feasibility level are recommended on the suitability of the identified potential areas and the environmental impacts of the improvement of existing areas, or reclamation of new areas. The costs of such studies will be easily recovered by reductions in implementation costs and non-optimal projects.

In general the phased approach that has been followed so far by the Indonesian government would still have to be supported. However, the initial phased approach as followed in the past schemes can be improved, based on the experiences that now have been obtained. For example, one could wonder if it would not be better to settle the good or even the best farmers in the tidal lowlands instead of the poor farmers. One could also think of the farmers that have to give up their land at Java due to urbanisation. Water management needs are different related to soil types and types of land use. Based on

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the relevant items a water management zoning will have to be developed based on: crop type:

wetland rice inundated fields with leaching dry food crops appropriate groundwater tables

soils: acid sulphate soils: prevention of acidification, or maximum leaching; peat soils: peat soils where due to subsidence drainage by pumping would

become required should not be reclaimed; water management systems:

tidal lowlands: an integrated approach will be required between on-farm level, main system level and delta level (Suryadi, 1996);

lowlands in river flood plains: in this case the integrated approach has to refer to on-farm level, main system level and catchment level;

water management: in phase I and II only primarily drainage by gravity will be required. Drainage by

pumping should be prevented at any case while it will be very costly. Irrigation can be applied where it easily can be realised by gravity. May be field irrigation can be applied by the farmers if they wish so;

proper operation of flap gates and sliding gates, based on agreed operation rules, will be an absolute requirement to make them effective and justify investments in such structures;

operation and maintenance: operation and maintenance costs of all works at tertiary level, have to be fully

borne by the farmers. This means that these costs cannot be more than about 5% of the yield. So far this has in many cases insufficiently been taken into account in the designs;

operation and maintenance of tertiary and on-farm canals would have to be the full responsibility of farmers, or farmers groups;

operation and maintenance of the primary and secondary canals would have to be the full responsibility of the government agency, generally at District Level. Among others this requires a timely budgeting of the operation and maintenance costs in the recurrent budgets (Land and Water Management Tidal Lowlands, 2006c);

an appropriate legal framework adapted to the local conditions of the tidal lowlands is of major importance. The PP Rawa that is now under preparation may serve this purpose.

Environmental considerations and sustainability

Until some twenty years ago, ecological data were not often used in reaching a decision on lowland development projects. This has led to various unforeseen consequences. Increasingly ecological data are used in all decisions on future lowland development projects. With respect to this, environmental impact analyses for new land reclamation projects, or significant changes in reclaimed areas would be required.

All land and water development projects have side effects. The challenge has been and will be to keep the negative environmental impacts at an acceptable level and to support positive environmental impacts as far as reasonably possible. Of special importance for reclaimed tidal lowlands are: controlled application of fertiliser and pesticides; quality criteria and quality control for drainage waters; prevention of waterlogging.

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As far as the configuration and lay out of newly reclaimed areas is concerned, this may also be influenced by the existing environmental values in the area that is envisaged for reclamation. In several cases the combination of the reclaimed area and the surrounding area may result in higher environmental values than the situation before reclamation, provided that due attention is given to this aspect when plans are being developed.

We are also more and more concerned about the sustainability of our activities. In the past we did not have to bother so much about this, but increasing population pressure, changes in food production practices, and mining, or even exhaustion of resources have increased our concern. The following tendencies can be observed that may have an impact on the development of tidal lowlands: migration of people from rural to urban areas; requirement of higher yields per ha; increase in farm sizes, higher value crops, or part time farming; mechanisation in agriculture; increased application of fertiliser and pesticides.

First generation problems

In newly reclaimed areas, several problems can be regarded as first generation problems, like: in the initial state there is a strong commitment of the involved organizations. However,

if the development has to be continued without further external resources, stagnation may occur;

the farm sizes and the layout pattern, that initially have been implemented, may turn out to be inadequate to cope with developments in society. Due to this, farming may become uneconomic;

insufficient institutional arrangements and organisation to properly operate and maintain the flood protection, water management and infrastructure facilities;

waterlogging of depression sites in the reclaimed areas, resulting from seepage losses from adjacent waters;

insufficient skill of farmers to cultivate crops under the conditions as prevailing in the newly reclaimed land;

developments of acid sulphate soils.Generally such problems reduce shortly after reclamation, or when a new generation takes over the responsibilities.

Final Remarks

In this presentation the various aspects of the development of tidal lowlands have been presented. We still see nowadays a tremendous pressure to develop such areas. The purposes of development may be primarily agricultural, urban or industrial land use. Increasingly nature conservation and recreation aspects are taken into account in the development plans. From and agricultural point of view the development of such areas may help to fulfil governments objectives on food self-sufficiency, or food security. For urban and industrial development reclamation of tidal lowlands may help to solve the problems that are created by the required rapid development of such areas.

By improving the water management systems with full involvement of the farmers in the determination of the preferred water management at secondary and tertiary level, as well as in the actual operation and maintenance of the water control structures agricultural yields in the pilot areas of the LWMTL program have increased significantly. These

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improvements in water management have been implemented in combination with improved agricultural practices, post harvest processing and marketing facilities. Such measures will enable the farmers to improve their standard of living and enable them to substantially contribute to food production, especially rice, in Indonesia. It is sincerely hoped that these experiences can get a wider application in the near future.

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References

BAPPENAS, Departmen Pertanian, USAID, DAI food policy advisory team, 2002. Does Indonesia face a food security time bomb? Indonesian Food Policy Program. Working paper no. 11, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Hartoyo Suprianto, 2004. Where do we stand on swamplands development, Regional Teaching Seminar on Technical Guidelines on Tidal Lowlands, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Hartoyo Suprianto, Sumarjo Gatot Irianto, Robiyanto H. Susanto, Bart Schultz and F.X. Suryadi. Potentials and constraints of water management measures for tidal lowlands in South Sumatra. Case study in a Pilot area in Telang I. In: Proceedings of the 9th Inter-Regional Conference on Environment-Water. EnviroWater 2006. Concepts for Watermanagement and Multifunctional Land-Uses in Lowlands, Delft, the Netherlands, 17 - 19 May, 2006.

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Land and Water Management Tidal Lowlands, 2006a. Technical Guideline on Tidal Lowland Development. Volume I: General Aspects, Report of the Joint Indonesian - Netherlands Working Group, Jakarta, Indonesia (In English and Bahasa Indonesia).

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Land and Water Management Tidal Lowlands, 2006c. Technical Guideline on Tidal Lowland Development. Volume III: Operation and Maintenance, Report of the Joint Indonesian - Netherlands Working Group, Jakarta, Indonesia (In English and Bahasa Indonesia).

NEDECO/Euroconsult/BIEC, 1984.Nation wide inventory of coastal and near-coastal swampland in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Irian Jaya.

Pranich, K., 1982, Land and water management in polders, Final report of the International symposium ‘Polders of the World’, International Institute for Land Reclamation and Improvement, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Schultz, Bart, 2001. Development of tidal swamps and estuaries. In: keynotes 1st Asian Regional Conference ICID, Seoul, Korea, 16 - 21 September 2001.

Schultz, Bart, C.D. Thatte and V.K. Labhsetwar, 2005. Irrigation and drainage. Main contributors to global food production. Irrigation and Drainage 54.3.

Segeren, W.A., 1983. Introduction to the presentations of the international symposium ‘Polders of the World’. In: Final report of the international symposium ‘Polders of the World’. International Institute for Land Reclamation and Improvement (ILRI), Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Suriadikarta, D.A., G. Sjamsidi, D. Mansur and A. Abdurachman, 2001. Increasing food crop productivity through intensive agricultural program in Indonesia. Proceedings Regional Workshop on Integrated Plant Nutrient System (IPNS) Development and Rural Poverty Alleviation, 18-20 September 2001, Bangkok, Thailand.

Suprapto, A., 2002. Land and water resources development in Indonesia, Website FAO, Rome, Italy

Suryadi, F. X., 1996. Soil and Water Management Strategies for Tidal Lowlands in Indonesia. PhD thesis, International Institute for Infrastructural, Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering (IHE), Delft, The Netherlands.

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