NSW to help Jakarta with wastewater treatment
NSW to help Jakarta with wastewater treatment
JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta administration signed an agreement
with the Australia's New South Wales administration yesterday to
set up a central treatment system for the city's household
wastewater.
The city's assistant secretary for economic and development
affairs, Prawoto S. Danoemihardjo, said the project was expected
to start in the 1998/1999 fiscal year and would be completed
within seven years.
The project is part of the 1994 sister-state agreement between
Jakarta and New South Wales and includes assistance for Jakarta's
urban development and infrastructure.
Prawoto said the project, which will involve both the public
and private sectors, would be undertaken by a trustee company
representing a Jakarta administration syndicate and another from
New South Wales.
He said that when the central system was operating, effluent
from existing and planned local sewer systems would be channeled
through a central tunnel to a treatment site before being dumped
five to nine kilometers offshore.
The development of feeder systems of pipes from homes to the
central system, will be handled separately by the sanitation
agency, the public works agency and city-owned effluent treatment
company Pal Jaya,
Pal Jaya is expected to be part of the Jakarta syndicate.
Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said yesterday that the development
would relieve the pressure on the city's river system.
He said that at present people were "dumping wastewater
everywhere" and this was having a serious environmental impact on
the rivers.
"This is a reality we have to deal with day after day. If we
don't solve the problem soon, it's hard to imagine when we will
have a clean and healthy environment," he said.
Surjadi said many programs to prevent pollution had been
undertaken, but the results were less than satisfactory.
"This partnership, which benefits both parties, is a
breakthrough in solving wastewater problems," he said.
Via the project the city would learn advanced techniques of
effluent treatment and pollution control, he said.
The head of the city's environmental bureau, Aboejoewono
Aboeprajitno, said that household wastewater in Jakarta was
particularly hazardous to the environment.
"Household wastewater, especially gray water or water polluted
with detergents, contains a high level of pollutants," he said.
Dangerous substances in household wastewater include bacteria,
chloride, sulfates and nitrate chemical compounds, he said.
Jakarta is able to process only one percent of 1.8 million
cubic meters of household effluent a day, he said.
Pal Jaya has two wastewater treatment centers and two pumping
stations in Setiabudi, Central Jakarta. It has announced plans to
set up two more centers in Tomang, West Jakarta, and Kebon
Melati, Central Jakarta. (ste)