City to reorganize management of PAM Jaya

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration will reorganize the management of the city-owned water company PAM Jaya in a bid to help improve water services in the capital.

Deputy Governor of Economic and Development Affairs TB Rais told reporters on Wednesday that the new management will be announced next month at the latest.

"We will announce the reshuffle, including that of the board of directors, before the new year," he said.

The city administration's decision to restructure PAM Jaya's management was in response to a request by members of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) faction of the City Council.

Romulus Sihombing, one of the party members, said the management of the city water company needed reorganizing so that the firm can improve services and provide better drinking water.

"The existing management can no longer be kept," Romulus was quoted by the Jayakarta daily as saying yesterday.

Susanto Mertodiningrat, head of the drinking water and settlement health improvement training center of the Ministry of Public Works, said recently that the volume of water leaking from the distribution pipes of PAM Jaya reaches 59 percent of its total water production.

This figure, however, was denied by spokesman of the city administration Soesilo Darmoadji, who said that based on averages over the last 12 months the firm's leakages reached 51.35 percent. Other calculations by the firm put the leakages at 45.34 percent.

Data at the company show that its production, which reaches a total of 1 million cubic meters daily, only supplies 58.8 percent of the city's daily water demand of 1.7 million cubic meters.

The remaining 700,000 cubic meters is acquired from other water sources, such as artesian wells.

Susanto said that the volume of water leakages in Jakarta is far higher than the average of 42 percent of other provincial water companies throughout the country.

He was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying the water losses were caused mainly by aging pipelines and pilferage. "Besides springing leaks, the old pipes can affect the quality of the treated water distributed by the firm," he added.

Rais said that restructuring the management is one of the city administration's efforts of improving the water quality.

"Other aims include the reduction of water leakage through the maintenance of old pipelines and the extension of water networks," he said.

The extension of water networks will partly be financed by loans from donor countries.

The reorganizing, reduction of water leakage and the extension of water networks is expected to demonstrate to the public the city authorities' determination to deal with water problems in the capital.

"In addition we will continue urging city residents to follow President Soeharto's call for effective water usage in their daily activities," he added. (hhr)