Leakages blamed for lax water supply

Leakages blamed for lax water supply

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

"We can swim! We can swim!" a girl is heard shouting in a radio
ad. Then, there is the voice of her father saying that the water
is dirty, because it comes from leaking pipes. The father then
calls on radio listeners to report all leakages in their
neighborhood to their tap water operator.

That scene may be familiar for tap water customers in the
capital as they still have to deal with water shortages due to
leaking pipes and illegal connections.

The lack of a comprehensive system in monitoring the supply of
water by tap water operators in the city is believed to be the
cause of water losses, which currently stands at 47 percent of
water supply, according to Poltak H. Situmorang, chairman of the
Indonesian Water Contractors Association (Akaindo) Jakarta
chapter.

"The operators no longer use a 'district meter' system to
maintain their water pipe network," he said on Wednesday. "They
have merely reduced their water flow and even pushed for water
rate hikes to compensate for the deficits due to water losses."

Poltak explained that in 1987, the city tap water operator PD
PAM Jaya launched an improvement system, and contracted Akaindo
to install and utilize an array of water meters on the pipes all
the way down to the district level to monitor and detect water
losses.

During the program, PAM Jaya managed to reduce the losses from
63 percent in Tanjung Duren to only 27 percent, from 35 percent
in Senayan to 16 percent and from 65 percent to 27 percent in
Pluit.

With the current tap water production of some 11 cubic meters
per second, the maximum tolerable water loss is 20 percent to
ensure that every customer gets water.

In 1998, PAM Jaya signed contracts with British water company
Thames Water International and French water company Lyonnaise des
Eaux, to establish PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) and PT Thames
PAM Jaya (TPJ), to manage the city's water service. Those two
companies no longer use Akaindo members for piping needs.

Poltak and Akaindo also alleged that the foreign water
operators had simply reduced the water flow in an effort to
reduce water losses.

"Reducing the water flow will eventually decrease pressure and
less water will flow out of leaking pipes," he said. "But it also
means that many customers will likely experience dry taps due to
a lack of flow and pressure."

What has been more unfair to customers, Poltak said, was that
the operators had regularly pushed for water rate hikes, although
their efforts to fix leaking pipes were questionable.

Aikindo has some 300 water contractors as its members and has
cooperated with PAM Jaya in building more than 900 kilometers of
tap water piping in the city.

Officials from Palyja and TPJ, however, disagreed with
Poltak's statements.

TPJ external relations and communication director, Rhamses
Simanjuntak, explained that his company's use of variable water
pressure equipment in its pipe network was necessary to prevent
aging pipes from bursting.

"We also still use the district meter system and have a
special division to handle leakages," he said.

Palyja public relations manager, Maria Sidabutar, meanwhile,
said her company makes daily checks of the pipe network and has
rehabilitated a total of 585 kilometers of pipes in their efforts
to reduce water losses.

TPJ stated that it had managed to decrease water losses to 43
percent from 58 percent in 1998, while Palyja to 45 percent from
61 percent.

The two foreign companies also called on the residents to file
reports of leakages in their neighborhoods, so that they could
send a team to repair the pipes.