Consumers criticize PAM Jaya

Consumers criticize PAM Jaya

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

About 1,600 customers of city-owned tap water firm PD Pam Jaya
complained on Tuesday that they had not received an adequate
water supply for three months, although they had paid their
monthly water bills.

Around 100 representatives of customers from Marunda, North
Jakarta, met with City Council Commission B for economic affairs,
asking the councillors to help persuade the tap water firm to
supply the water immediately.

"There are PAM Jaya water trucks that are supplying water to
houses every day, but their supplies do not meet our needs. So we
have to buy additional water from vendors," said Tuminah, 50, one
of the representatives.

Tuminah said she spent between Rp 10,000 (US$1.22) to Rp
15,000 per day to buy water from the vendors in order to meet the
needs of her five-member family.

She said she still paid the Rp 30,000 fixed monthly charge to
British PT Thames Pam Jaya (TPJ), Pam Jaya's business partner
that serves customers in the eastern part of Jakarta, including
Marunda subdistrict.

Only two trucks of water with a 4,500-liter load came daily to
their houses with water for the residents of community units II,
III and IX in Marunda, she said.

Rika, 20, another Marunda resident, said the supply from TPJ
had been inconsistent for the past three months.

"The water supply has actually been disrupted since last year.
We've never experienced an adequate supply," Rika said at a
hearing with Commission B.

Besides Marunda residents, thousands of PAM Jaya customers in
the subdistricts of Kali Baru, Rawa Badak and Cilincing, all in
North Jakarta, reportedly suffer from a disrupted water service.

Admitting to their poor service, PAM Jaya promised to supply
water to the residents for free. The firm asked the residents to
bear with the problem until the end of this month, because the
piping network construction in the area was not yet complete.

Marunda residents were not happy with the promise, as the had
often heard such promises before.

"They have promised many times that the water supply would go
back to normal soon, but they've never kept their promises," Rika
told The Jakarta Post.

At the hearing, TPJ Communications and External Relations
Rhamses Simanjuntak claimed that the problem had occurred because
the areas' network capacity could only accommodate 400 houses,
but the firm had to supply water to about 1,600 houses.

Separately, Tubagus Haryo Karbyanto, a lawyer from the Jakarta
Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), said the Marunda case showed
that consumers were always in a weak position.

He said in any agreement between two parties, there were
always articles that spelled out the obligation of each party.

"But if the consumers want take legal recourse against PAM
Jaya, it is expensive and will be a long process," Tubagus said,
adding that negotiations might be a cheaper way to resolve the
problem.

The compromise, he added, could be for PAM Jaya to supply the
water to customers free-of-charge for the duration of time that
the residents had not received supplied.

Besides tap water customers in North Jakarta, millions of
residents across the city who use artesian wells have reportedly
suffered water shortages because of the current dry season.

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency predicted that the dry
season would last up to next month.