DKI Requests High-Rise Building Owners to Halt Groundwater Use
The Jakarta provincial government is expanding groundwater-free zones. PAM Jaya’s director general Arief Nasrudin has stressed that high-rise buildings already supplied with water from the PAM network should no longer use groundwater.
“High-rise buildings that already have water supplied from PAM should stop using groundwater. We must enforce this,” Arief said at Jakarta City Hall on Wednesday (11 March).
According to Arief, expanding groundwater-free zones is important because piped water service coverage in Jakarta has reached approximately 80–82 per cent, making it timely to significantly reduce groundwater dependence.
“This is what we’re advocating to Jakarta’s provincial government—to expand groundwater-free zones. Because our service coverage has already reached over 80 per cent this year,” he said.
He cautioned that excessive groundwater exploitation can cause serious environmental damage, particularly land subsidence, which has already occurred in various regions. Arief cited several Indonesian cities experiencing ground subsidence due to uncontrolled groundwater use.
“Many cases are happening now. Land keeps sinking. In cities like Semarang and Tegal, the effects are already being felt,” he noted.
He argued that providing adequate clean piped water is a fundamental requirement if Jakarta is to genuinely transform into a global city.
“It’s odd to talk about being a global city when we haven’t even solved basic piped water supply,” Arief said.
Currently, PAM Jaya’s piped water service coverage has reached 80.24 per cent with approximately 12,835 kilometres of pipelines, serving 1,178,022 customers, and water distribution capacity reaching 22,583 litres per second.
Arief targets achieving 100 per cent piped clean water coverage in Jakarta by 2029, with a pipeline network of 16,234 kilometres and water supply capacity of 31,563 litres per second.
According to PAM Jaya data, approximately 92 per cent of Jakarta’s raw water comes from outside the capital, particularly from Jatiluhur Reservoir in Purwakarta. The remaining eight per cent comes from sources within Jakarta. For treated water, approximately 88 per cent originates from outside Jakarta and 12 per cent is produced within the DKI Jakarta region.
Meanwhile, Bappeda DKI Jakarta’s head of development and environmental affairs Cipta Aditya stated that the provincial government is preparing policies to expand groundwater-free zones as part of efforts to reduce dependence on groundwater sources.
According to Cipta, studies on expanding groundwater-free zones were actually conducted last year by the Water Resources Service. “We’re now in the process of drafting the gubernatorial regulation. Hopefully it can be accelerated soon,” Cipta said.
Currently, Jakarta has Governor Regulation Number 93 of 2021 on Groundwater-Free Zones, which serves as the basis for controlling groundwater use in several Jakarta areas.
However, Cipta emphasised that groundwater use restrictions cannot be imposed unilaterally without providing alternative water sources for the public.
“The government cannot ban groundwater use if alternatives aren’t yet available. So once piped water service is established, then we can encourage stopping groundwater use,” he said.