Hotel forced to spend additional funds to buy water

Hotel forced to spend additional funds to buy water

JAKARTA (JP): A four-star hotel on Jl. M. H. Thamrin has been
forced to buy 254 tons of water due to the malfunction of the
city water installation.

"We have bought 254 tons of water from Kramat Jati water
installation, East Jakarta, since Wednesday when the water supply
from the city started to decrease in pressure," said Ningsih A.
Chandra, the corporate public relations manager of President
Hotel yesterday.

She said that for the last two days, the hotel management has
spent Rp 4.4 million (US2,037) to buy additional water from the
installation.

According to her, the hotel needs around 800 tons of water a
day while its artesian well can only provide 300 tons a day.

"The only solution we have now is to reduce the use of water
in the hotel," she said.

She said that to save water, the hotel management had decided
to close three of its restaurants, Gojyo Tempura, Garden Lounge
and Sky Garden Grill and Supper Club, until the water supply is
back to normal.

Ningsih added that the hotel had also closed two public rest
rooms.

The hotel has 11 restaurants, 315 rooms, including 267
standard rooms, 29 executive suites, 14 deluxe suites and a
presidential suite.

Ningsih added, however, that the water shortage will not
affect the hotel as long as one of its two water pumps is
functioning.

The water supply in the city has sharply decreased because of
the prolonged drought season, high levels of river pollution and
the damage of Tarum Barat water dam in Kali Malang, East Jakarta
on Sept. 3.

The Director of the City Water Company, Syamsu Romli, has said
that the damaged dam has caused a sharp decrease in the water
supply distributed to the two city main water installations,
Pejompongan I and II.

"As a result the water supply to the two installations
decreased from between 12 to 14 cubic meters per second to only
eight to nine cubic meters per second," he said.

He added that the damage also made the water level in the
Tarum Barat duct drop from 1.2 meters to 0.25 meters.

However, city water company spokesman Mustika Siregar, said
that the two installations have returned to normal as of
yesterday.

Mustika explained that after the damage the water production
at the Pejompongan I installation decreased from 1,000 liters per
second to 500 liters per second, while the production of
Pejompongan II dropped from 2,500 liters per second to 1,500 per
second.

The decreasing water supply also affected some of the hotels
and buildings along Jl. Thamrin and Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta
on Wednesday, but most of them managed to overcome the problem
because they have enough water in their ground reservoirs.

Sri Sekartadji Asmoro, the Public Relation Manager of Sahid
Jaya Hotel and Tower, revealed that on Wednesday the water supply
from the city decreased, "But we have 1,000 cubic meters in our
reservoir and our four underground wells still distribute 200
liters per second," she said.

Lela Pello of Grand Hyatt also said that the hotel has enough
water in its reservoir.(03).