Bengawan Solo River
Encyclopedia
Bengawan Solo River is the longest river on the Indonesia
n island of Java, approximately 600 km in length. Apart from its importance as watercourse to the inhabitants and farmlands of the eastern and northern parts of the island, it is a renowned region in paleoanthropology
circles. Many discoveries of early hominid
remains have been made at several sites in its valleys, especially at Sangiran
, including that of the first early human fossil found outside of Europe, the so-called "Java Man
" skull.
Bengawan Solo was the crash site of Garuda Indonesia Flight 421
.
of Mount Lawu
, in the border of Central Java
and East Java
. It passes through the major city of Surakarta
(called Solo by the local inhabitants). An important early tributary to the Solo river is Dengkeng river, which has its source in Mount Merapi
. After passing through Solo, the river flows northward around Mount Lawu, and then turn eastward into East Java
in the Ngawi regency.
After Ngawi the river turned northward again, forming the boundary between Blora regency of Central Java and Bojonegoro
regency of East Java. From town of Cepu in Blora, the river turned eastward and passed through Bojonegoro regency's capital city. From there, it continues eastward through Lamongan
and Gresik regency. The last part of the river's basin (roughly starting from Bojonegoro regency) is mostly flat land.
Bengawan Solo delta is located near the town of Sedayu in Gresik regency. The present delta is redirected by human made canal
. The original delta flowed into Madura Strait
, but in 1890 a 12-km canal was made by Dutch East Indies
authority to redirect the Solo river into Java Sea
. This is to prevent sedimentation of mud from filling Madura Strait and preventing sea access of important port city of Surabaya
.
The Solo river delta
has a huge mud sedimentation
flow that deposited 17 million tonne of mud per year. This sedimentation in the delta form a cape, which has average longitudinal growth of 70 m per year. This delta is known as Ujung Pangkah (Pangkah Cape).
. This drainage of the river system consisted of major river in present-day Sumatra
and Borneo
, such as Asahan river, Musi
river and Kapuas river. The river system disappeared when Sundaland was submerged after sea level rise following the last Ice Age less than 10.000 years ago.
The river played important part in Javanese history. Its drainage basin is an important agricultural area, dominated by rice
farming. The river transported fertile volcanic soil downstream, replenishing the soil. It also provided link between Javanese port cities in the northern coast and the rice-growing hinterlands, with shallow vessels transporting rice to he ports to be sold. This rice is Java's main commodity that was traded as part of the Spice trade
.
Following acquisition of much of Java by the Dutch colonial governmental, various cash crop
s was introduced to be planted across the river basin, such as coffee
, sugar
and cotton
. (see Cultivation System
).
By the last years of 19th century, river sedimentation in its original delta in Madura Strait started to disrupt vessels traffic in port of Surabaya. The Dutch colonial government decided to divert the river flow away from the shipping lane into Java Sea
. They built a canal in the river's delta in 1890s which still alter the river until this day.
In 1891, Dutch paleoanthropologist Eugène Dubois
discovered remains of what he described as "a species in between humans and apes". He called his finds Pithecanthropus erectus ("ape-human that stands upright") or Java Man
. Today, they are classified as Homo erectus
("human that stands upright"). These were the first specimens of early hominid
remains to be found outside of Africa or Europe.
Prior to the centralised management efforts, there were reports of pollution along the Bengawan Solo
.
created a song named after the river. Bengawan Solo
became a popular folk song in Indonesia.
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n island of Java, approximately 600 km in length. Apart from its importance as watercourse to the inhabitants and farmlands of the eastern and northern parts of the island, it is a renowned region in paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropology, which combines the disciplines of paleontology and physical anthropology, is the study of ancient humans as found in fossil hominid evidence such as petrifacted bones and footprints.-19th century:...
circles. Many discoveries of early hominid
Hominidae
The Hominidae or include them .), as the term is used here, form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees , gorillas , humans , and orangutans ....
remains have been made at several sites in its valleys, especially at Sangiran
Sangiran
Sangiran is an archaeological excavation site on the island of Java in Indonesia. The area comprises about 48 km² and is located in Central Java, about 15 kilometers north of Surakarta in the Solo River valley. In 1996 it was accepted as World Heritage by the UNESCO.-History:In 1934 the...
, including that of the first early human fossil found outside of Europe, the so-called "Java Man
Java Man
Java Man is the name given to fossils discovered in 1891 at Trinil - Ngawi Regency on the banks of the Solo River in East Java, Indonesia, one of the first known specimens of Homo erectus...
" skull.
Bengawan Solo was the crash site of Garuda Indonesia Flight 421
Garuda Indonesia Flight 421
Garuda Indonesia Flight 421 was a scheduled domestic flight operated by Indonesian flag carrier Garuda Indonesia covering about 625 kilometers, from Ampenan to Yogyakarta. On January 16, 2002, the Boeing 737-300 aircraft experienced a flameout in both of its CFM International CFM56 engines about 90...
.
Geography
The Bengawan Solo River has its source at the volcanoVolcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
of Mount Lawu
Mount Lawu
Mount Lawu, or Gunung Lawu, is a massive compound stratovolcano straddling the border between East Java and Central Java, Indonesia. The north side is deeply eroded and the eastern side contains parasitic crater lakes and parasitic cones. A fumarolic area is located on the south flank at 2,550 m...
, in the border of Central Java
Central Java
Central Java is a province of Indonesia. The administrative capital is Semarang. It is one of six provinces on the island of Java.This province is the province of high Human Development in Indonesia and its Points Development Index countries is equivalent to Lebanon. The province of Central Java...
and East Java
East Java
East Java is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the eastern part of the island of Java and includes neighboring Madura and islands to its east and to its north East Java is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the eastern part of the island of Java and includes neighboring Madura and...
. It passes through the major city of Surakarta
Surakarta
Surakarta, also called Solo or Sala, is a city in Central Java, Indonesia of more than 520,061 people with a population density of 11,811.5 people/km2. The 44 km2 city adjoins Karanganyar Regency and Boyolali Regency to the north, Karanganyar Regency and Sukoharjo Regency to the east and...
(called Solo by the local inhabitants). An important early tributary to the Solo river is Dengkeng river, which has its source in Mount Merapi
Mount Merapi
Mount Merapi, Gunung Merapi , is an active stratovolcano located on the border between Central Java and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It is the most active volcano in Indonesia and has erupted regularly since 1548...
. After passing through Solo, the river flows northward around Mount Lawu, and then turn eastward into East Java
East Java
East Java is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the eastern part of the island of Java and includes neighboring Madura and islands to its east and to its north East Java is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the eastern part of the island of Java and includes neighboring Madura and...
in the Ngawi regency.
After Ngawi the river turned northward again, forming the boundary between Blora regency of Central Java and Bojonegoro
Bojonegoro
Bojonegoro is a regency in East Java, Indonesia, about 110 km west of Surabaya. Bojonegoro is located in the inland part of northern Java plain, on the banks of the Bengawan Solo river, the largest river in Java....
regency of East Java. From town of Cepu in Blora, the river turned eastward and passed through Bojonegoro regency's capital city. From there, it continues eastward through Lamongan
Lamongan
Lamongan is a regency of East Java, Indonesia, with an area of .Lamongan Regency is surrounded by:*Northern side : Java Sea*Southern side : Regency of Mojokerto and Jombang*Eastern side : Gresik Regency...
and Gresik regency. The last part of the river's basin (roughly starting from Bojonegoro regency) is mostly flat land.
Bengawan Solo delta is located near the town of Sedayu in Gresik regency. The present delta is redirected by human made canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
. The original delta flowed into Madura Strait
Madura Strait
Madura Strait is a stretch of water that separates the Indonesian islands of Java and Madura. The islands of Kambing, Giliraja, Genteng, and Ketapang lie in the Strait....
, but in 1890 a 12-km canal was made by Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
authority to redirect the Solo river into Java Sea
Java Sea
The Java Sea is a large shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf. It was formed as sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age. The Java Sea lies between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south; Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east...
. This is to prevent sedimentation of mud from filling Madura Strait and preventing sea access of important port city of Surabaya
Surabaya
Surabaya is Indonesia's second-largest city with a population of over 2.7 million , and the capital of the province of East Java...
.
The Solo river delta
River delta
A delta is a landform that is formed at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river. Deltas are formed from the deposition of the sediment carried by the river as the flow leaves the mouth of the river...
has a huge mud sedimentation
Sedimentation
Sedimentation is the tendency for particles in suspension to settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained, and come to rest against a barrier. This is due to their motion through the fluid in response to the forces acting on them: these forces can be due to gravity, centrifugal acceleration...
flow that deposited 17 million tonne of mud per year. This sedimentation in the delta form a cape, which has average longitudinal growth of 70 m per year. This delta is known as Ujung Pangkah (Pangkah Cape).
History
Solo river was part of massive river system that once existed in SundalandSundaland
Sundaland is a biogeographical region of Southeastern Asia which encompasses the areas of the Asian continental shelf that was exposed during the last ice age. It included the Malay Peninsula on the Asian mainland, as well as the large islands of Borneo, Java, and Sumatra and their surrounding...
. This drainage of the river system consisted of major river in present-day Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
and Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
, such as Asahan river, Musi
Musi
Musi may refer to:* Musi River * Musi River * Musi language It may also refer to:*Angelo Musi, an American basketball player...
river and Kapuas river. The river system disappeared when Sundaland was submerged after sea level rise following the last Ice Age less than 10.000 years ago.
The river played important part in Javanese history. Its drainage basin is an important agricultural area, dominated by rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
farming. The river transported fertile volcanic soil downstream, replenishing the soil. It also provided link between Javanese port cities in the northern coast and the rice-growing hinterlands, with shallow vessels transporting rice to he ports to be sold. This rice is Java's main commodity that was traded as part of the Spice trade
Spice trade
Civilizations of Asia were involved in spice trade from the ancient times, and the Greco-Roman world soon followed by trading along the Incense route and the Roman-India routes...
.
Following acquisition of much of Java by the Dutch colonial governmental, various cash crop
Cash crop
In agriculture, a cash crop is a crop which is grown for profit.The term is used to differentiate from subsistence crops, which are those fed to the producer's own livestock or grown as food for the producer's family...
s was introduced to be planted across the river basin, such as coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
, sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
and cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
. (see Cultivation System
Cultivation System
The Cultivation System , or less accurately the Culture System, was a Dutch government policy in the mid-nineteenth century for its Dutch East Indies colony...
).
By the last years of 19th century, river sedimentation in its original delta in Madura Strait started to disrupt vessels traffic in port of Surabaya. The Dutch colonial government decided to divert the river flow away from the shipping lane into Java Sea
Java Sea
The Java Sea is a large shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf. It was formed as sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age. The Java Sea lies between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south; Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east...
. They built a canal in the river's delta in 1890s which still alter the river until this day.
In 1891, Dutch paleoanthropologist Eugène Dubois
Eugène Dubois
Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois was a Dutch paleoanthropologist. He earned worldwide fame for his discovery of Pithecanthropus erectus , or 'Java Man'...
discovered remains of what he described as "a species in between humans and apes". He called his finds Pithecanthropus erectus ("ape-human that stands upright") or Java Man
Java Man
Java Man is the name given to fossils discovered in 1891 at Trinil - Ngawi Regency on the banks of the Solo River in East Java, Indonesia, one of the first known specimens of Homo erectus...
. Today, they are classified as Homo erectus
Homo erectus
Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominid that lived from the end of the Pliocene epoch to the later Pleistocene, about . The species originated in Africa and spread as far as India, China and Java. There is still disagreement on the subject of the classification, ancestry, and progeny of H...
("human that stands upright"). These were the first specimens of early hominid
Hominidae
The Hominidae or include them .), as the term is used here, form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees , gorillas , humans , and orangutans ....
remains to be found outside of Africa or Europe.
Resource management
Brantas River Public Corporation or Perum Jasa Tirta I (PJT1) is responsible for managing the water resources of Brantas and Bengawan Solo river basins in Indonesia. It is a centralised effort to:- conserve the water resource quality and quantity in the Bengawan Solo and Brantas River basins
- flood control
- manage hydroelectric and other infrastructures along those rivers.
Prior to the centralised management efforts, there were reports of pollution along the Bengawan Solo
.
Media depiction
Inspired by the river, Gesang MartohartonoGesang Martohartono
Gesang Martohartono was a renowned Indonesian singer-songwriter from central Java, and he is the composer of the song Bengawan Solo, a tune which has become famous throughout Indonesia, Japan, much of Asia, and some other countries in the world. The song is almost synonymous with the kroncong...
created a song named after the river. Bengawan Solo
Bengawan Solo (song)
Bengawan Solo is a famous Indonesian song about the Solo River, which flows through central and eastern Java, Indonesia and is that island's longest river....
became a popular folk song in Indonesia.
Further reading
- Prabowo, Dibyo, & McConnell, D. J. & Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (1993), Changes and development in Solo Valley farming systems, Indonesia Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome ISBN 9251028974