Artesian well fees raised by up to 250%
Artesian well fees raised by up to 250%
JAKARTA (JP): The city administration has raised artesian well fees for household, social, commercial and industrial use between 150 to 250 percent, head of the Municipal Mining Office Arifin Akbar said.
Arifin told reporters on Wednesday that the substantial hike, stipulated under Regional Regulation No.4/1994 and effective as of April 1, is intended mainly to encourage customers to use water from the city-owned water company. In addition, the new rates are to discourage further depletion of ground water and help preserve ground water potential.
"The substantial hike is also important to help reduce seawater intrusion," he said.
The fee increase will have a great effect on artesian well owners, including companies, hotels, restaurants, hospitals and factories.
A hotel on Jl. MH. Thamrin in Central Jakarta, for example, which previously paid Rp 8.9 million (US$40,454) for the consumption of 8,091 cubic meters of water from its artesian well, will now pay Rp 28.22 million.
If the hotel uses water from PAM Jaya, the 8,091 cubic meters of water will cost only Rp 25.1 million, Arifin said.
A hospital on Jl. Diponegoro that consumed 3,510 cubic meters of water paying Rp 1.7 million, now has to pay Rp 3.13 million, according to the new rate, he said, adding that the same quantity from PAM Jaya costs only Rp 2.2 million.
For household use, an artesian well owner, who was usually freed from paying the first 100 cubic meters of water, is now required to pay after 50 cubic meters of water, Arifin said.
Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said recently that the potential of ground water in the city reaches approximately 77 million cubic meters per year, enough to support rising water demand for the next ten years.
Out of the 77 million cubic meters, 40 million cubic meters are derived from rain seeping into the ground with the other 37 million cubic meters coming from the Puncak hilly area south of the city, he said.
Surjadi said that based on geological data, rainwater levels in the city reach about 300 million cubic meters annually, of which 260 million cubic meters seep into the upper level of the ground and the other 40 million cubic meters into greater depths.
"The sustainable utilization limit of existing water sources is estimated at 42 million per annum," he said.
Data at the City Mining Office show that there are 2,959 artesian wells currently in operation throughout the city with total water consumption reaching about over 2.8 million cubic meters in March. (31/hhr)