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.