First comprehensive screening of lipophilic organic contaminants in surface waters of the megacity Jakarta, Indonesia

•First non-target screening analyses of river water samples from the megacity Jakarta•Identification of a broad spectrum of non-polar to semi-polar organic contaminants•Contaminants from municipal sources like pharmaceuticals found in high concentrations•Presence of molecular putridity indicators reveals anoxic conditions in water column.

Jakarta is an Indonesian coastal megacity with over 10 million inhabitants. The rivers flowing through the city receive enormous amounts of untreated wastewaters and discharge their pollutant loads into Jakarta Bay. We utilized a screening approach to identify those site-specific compounds that represent the major contamination of the cities' water resources, and detected a total number of 71 organic contaminants in Jakarta river water samples. Especially contaminants originating from municipal wastewater discharges were detected in high concentrations, including flame retardants, personal care products and pharmaceutical drugs.A flame retardant, a synthetic fragrance and caffeine were used as marker compounds to trace the riverine transport of municipal wastewaters into Jakarta Bay. These markers are also appropriate to trace municipal wastewater discharges to other tropical coastal ecosystems. This application is in particular useful to evaluate wastewater inputs from land-based sources to habitats which are sensitive to changing water quality, like coral reefs.