A day with a water peddler

Abdulsalam, 55, is a water peddler in the Meruya Ilir area of West Jakarta. A native of Batang, Central Java, he spends most of the year working in the capital, leaving his wife and seven children in his home village. At night Abdulsalam sleeps in a mosque at the Meruya Ilir market, waking in the morning to go on his rounds.

JAKARTA (JP): "I've been a water hawker for 15 years, starting in 1985 when I first came to Jakarta. My friend took me here because the boss needed more people to do the rounds in the area.

Before coming to Jakarta I was a farm laborer in my village, Bawang. I work on someone else's land and I get a portion of what is made on the land.

Now I put in three to four months of work a year in the rice fields, the rest of the time I am in Jakarta working as a water hawker.

Two of my sons usually cover my rounds for me here when I go back to work in the fields.

I usually start off work at half past five in the morning, after I say my morning prayers. I fill my water cans at the water reservoir here near the market.

The water in the reservoir is dropped off daily by the boss from a spring in Bogor, West Java, using a big water truck.

I usually carry about 20 cans in my pushcart. When they are all filled I start my rounds.

I don't have to call out or anything, the typical sounds made by the metal plates attached to the bottom of the cart are loud enough. It's a unique sound and everyone here knows it.

I have regular customers, houses that are certain to buy my water, so I don't have to go very far in a day. I only need to cover two blocks in the Meruya Ilir area.

Usually I sell about 30 cans of water a day, and sometimes more when it's my lucky day.

Before the water company came, I made about Rp 15,000 (US$1.60) a day gross. But since November, when they started installing water pipes in homes, I only make less than Rp 10,000.

I think it will be even less when all the houses here get tap water.

The boss gets Rp 10,000 for every 40 cans of water I sell, but I sell the cans for Rp 500 each so I get a Rp 250 profit per can.

At noon I stop for lunch and to pray. I eat at a warung in the market, usually just rice, some vegetables and tofu or tempeh. I don't eat much because I want to save my money for my family back in the kampung.

I stop again in the late afternoon to pray and rest for a little while, then I start off again.

A household could buy all of my 20 cans of water because it is cleaner than their groundwater. They use the water for cooking, cleaning and sometimes for bathing.

Work for me ends just before the evening call to prayer, at about 5:30. I drop off my cart at the reservoir and wash up for prayers. (tnt)