City needs more wastewater treatment plants

JAKARTA (JP): The city needs more household wastewater treatment centers to cope with the waste of its almost 10 million people, a city official said yesterday.

The city's household wastewater agency's director, Anggraini Dewi, said the city could only process one percent, or 221,000 cubic meters, of the 1.8 million cubic meters of wastewater a day.

The agency has two wastewater treatment centers and two pumping stations in Setiabudi, Central Jakarta. It planned to set up two more centers at a cost of at least Rp 9 trillion (US$3.7 billion) in Tomang, West Jakarta and Kebon Melati, Central Jakarta, she said.

"It is high time we added more waste centers because the increasing volume of waste is harmful to the public health," she told a panel discussion at the state minister of environment's office.

She said household wastewater was more hazardous to public health than human feces. Household wastewater, especially gray water or water polluted with detergents, contained a high level of pollutants, she said.

Wastewater specialist and director of PT Arias Bina Sanita Water, Alizar Anwar, said bacteria, chlorite, sulfates and nitrite chemical compounds were some of the dangerous substances found in household wastewater.

He said the city had a poor wastewater treatment record because it did not have a good sewerage system.

With the already-crowded underground water and electricity networks, it was not feasible to build an extensive sewerage network, he said.

The city relies on other bodies such as the city clean service and the city public works agency to deal with human waste and public bathrooms and toilets. (03)