Bogor 'springs' develop bottled water business

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

The writing on the bottle -- "taken from a spring" -- does not necessarily mean the picturesque pastoral setting the words conjure up.

In most cases, bottled water companies buy the spring water from large water reservoirs found across Bogor municipality.

One of the oldest in the business is Mount Salak Spring on Jl. Raya Cibinong, Pakansari in Bogor, which sends at least 20 water trucks to depots around Greater Jakarta each day.

During the dry season, the company can sell up to 27 truckloads of water a day.

"The water in the reservoir is taken from Ciburial-Cijeruk groundwater source channeled directly by the municipality's water company," spring operator Sumihar Sitanggang told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.

"We sent the trucks to Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi, and even to Cilegon in Banten province," he added.

A truckload of water is sold at Rp 250,000 (some US$26), Sitanggang said.

Business was better in the old days, he said, because now Mount Salak Spring had to compete with more than a dozen similar businesses in Sentul, Gunung Putri, Ciawi and Citiis.

"Although the number of consumers has also increased, we still have to deal with this tight competition."