Garbage reduces water supply to thirsty Jakarta
Garbage reduces water supply to thirsty Jakarta
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Garbage dumped along the West Tarum Canal affects water supply in
the city as it not only decreases water quality, but also reduces
the volume of water available for treatment, officials have said.
Officials from state-owned PT Jasa Tirta said on Friday that a
vast amount of trash often blocked water flowing into intake
gates along the 70-kilometer canal from Curug reservoir in West
Java to Cawang in East Jakarta.
Jasa Tirta is a supplier of untreated water to private water
firms PT Thames PAM Jaya (TPJ) and PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya
(Palyja), which are licensed by state water company PAM Jaya to
manage clean water in Jakarta.
"The garbage accumulating at intake gates along the West Tarum
Canal has caused water supply to drop by up to 50 percent," said
the head of division I of PT Jasa Tirta, Anda Suhanda, whose
jurisdiction covers Jakarta and surrounding areas.
Anda said the garbage in Cikarang reservoir could amount to up
to two trucks or 12 cubic meters per day.
A similar volume of garbage can be seen at the Cawang intake
and pumping station, according to Aas Ishak, head of PT Jasa
Tirta's untreated water supply in Jakarta.
Anda said the Jatiluhur Dam in West Java, from which water
flows to the Curug reservoir, had adequate water to meet demands
in Jakarta and West Java.
"If there is a significant drop in the water level in Jakarta
or Cikarang, it takes up to 24 hours to get additional water from
Curug because the water has to travel 70 kilometers," Anda said
during a visit to Cikarang reservoir.
Although he has appointed workers to control and pick up
garbage at the Cikarang intake gate, the level of water flowing
to Jakarta still drops, but not as often.
The supply of untreated water from PT Jasa Tirta through the
West Tarum Canal reaches 682.71 million cubic meters per year.
PT TPJ fully depends West Tarum River for its water supply
while PT Palyja also obtains water from Pasanggrahan River,
Krukut River and Cisadane river in Tangerang, Banten province.
Noviyan Halim, PT Palyja's production manager, said that
garbage was not the only problem affecting water supply from the
West Tarum Canal as liquid domestic waste was also dumped into
the canal, particularly along the last four kilometers before it
reaches the Cawang intake and pumping station.
"As you can see along the river, ditches from households also
flow into the West Tarum Canal. It makes water treatment more
difficult," Noviyan added.
A number of people also bathe and wash their clothes in the
canal.
According to Noviyan, Palyja often complains to PT Jasa Tirta
as the supplier of untreated water, but the company is powerless
to stop people from dumping their liquid waste into the rivers.
Noviyan, however, stressed that the quality of the untreated
water had nothing to do with the quality of PT Palyja's and PT
TPJ's production as the water passed a number of purifying
stages.
He said the inferior quality of clean water supplied by the
company was due to problems in underground pipes.
"Most of the pipes channeling water to the customers are very
old, therefore water quality has decreased," he added.