Customers oppose plan to raise water rates due to poor service
Customers oppose plan to raise water rates due to poor service
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Tap water customers in the capital are increasing their
opposition to plans to raise water rates in July despite
continued poor service, ranging from billing problems to frequent
supply disruptions.
"We represent tap water customers (in North Jakarta) who
oppose the planned tap water rate hike because we do not seen any
significant improvement in service," said the coordinator of a
North Jakarta tap water communication forum during a meeting
organized by the city tap water regulatory body on Thursday.
He said customers in Kalibaru, Ancol, Rawa Badak, Warakas,
Tanjung Priok and Penjaringan, all in North Jakarta, had
complained of poor water supplies.
"They complain about cloudy water and say the water supply is
only normal from after 9 p.m. until early in the morning," he
said.
Another customer representative from the Green Garden housing
complex in West Jakarta complained about the faulty billing
system, which has forced some customers to pay bills from five
years ago.
The tap water regulatory body, which was set up by city tap
water company PAM Jaya and its partners to mediate any problems
arising from their cooperation, called together tap water
customer associations, non-governmental organizations, PAM Jaya
and its foreign partners Thames PAM Jaya and PAM Lyonnaise Jaya
for a meeting to discuss the planned rate hike.
The hike, which would be the second this year, is part of an
automatic rate hike scheme scheduled to raise rates every six
months over the next five years, starting this year. Without
fanfare, the administration raised tap water rates by an average
of 8.14 percent on Jan. 20 this year. The increase ranged from 4
percent to 14 percent, depending on water consumption and
customer classification.
"We want a progress report on the latest hike. We hope the
administration will not raise rates again before an evaluation of
the first increase is done," the coordinator of a West Jakarta
consumers association said.
"There are numerous consumers in our association who have for
several years suffered from poor water supplies, but they are
still required to pay their bills. How can we explain this
(planned hike) to them?" he asked.
According to the PAM Jaya's estimates, about 11 percent of
more than 700,000 tap water customers across the capital only use
tap water as a backup for their groundwater.
The chairman of the tap water regulatory body, Achmad Lanti,
said revenue from the rate increase would be used to repay the
outstanding debt of Rp 938 billion PAM Jaya owes its foreign
partners.
France's Palyja serves customers in the west of Jakarta, while
British TPJ, which is a subsidiary of Britain's Thames Water
International, supplies customers in the east of the city.
Both TPJ and Palyja said they were still facing difficulties
in supplying clean water to their customers, mainly due to
untreated water and old pipe networks.
PAM Jaya's debts to the French company and the British company
were incurred due to its failure to comply with required hikes
stipulated in their cooperation agreement. The foreign companies
also say they have invested huge amounts of money in their
businesses.