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)