Govt to promote desalination system

Govt to promote desalination system

JAKARTA (JP): The government will promote the use of
desalination technology to supply fresh water to industrial
estates and settlements in coastal areas, says a senior industry
official.

Director General for Metal, Machinery and Electronic Industry
Effendi Sudarsono said yesterday the use and promotion of
desalination technology should continue to be developed in order
to overcome the scarcity of potable water in coastal cities and
densely-populated islands.

"The application of desalination technology will become a
better alternative to exploiting ground water in ... big cities
in the future," he said in a seminar on desalination technology
organized by desalinator manufacturing firm PT Sasakura Indonesia
here yesterday.

He said, apart from use on ships and in coastal tourist
resorts, desalination technology has been widely used on
industrial estates and in densely-populated cities such as
Jakarta, Surabaya in East Java and Medan in North Sumatra.

"These cities are facing a fresh-water crisis because of the
over-exploitation of ground water and the intrusion of seawater
to mainland," he said.

The official cited the industrial zones of Batam Island and
Natuna Island as areas which will rely heavily on desalination
technology for their fresh water supply in the future.

A number of state-owned institutions and companies, such as
oil company Pertamina, have also used the technology, he said.

Sasakura's president Kaoro Kato said his company, whose home
base in Osaka, Japan, sees Indonesia as a potential market in the
southeast region for its products.

"Indonesia is a potential market because it is an archipelagic
country and most of its densely-populated cities and industrial
estates are located in coastal areas," he said.

He said that his company has also developed desalination
technology to produce waste treatment machines. (rms)