PAM Jaya coverage reaches 80 per cent; groundwater-free zones need expansion
Jakarta — PT PAM Jaya (Perseroda), the state-owned water company, has urged the DKI Jakarta provincial government to expand groundwater-free zones, particularly in building locations, now that piped water service coverage across Jakarta has exceeded 80 per cent.
“Groundwater-free zones need to be expanded—this is what I am requesting from the provincial government,” said PAM Jaya’s Director General Arief Nasrudin during a Balkoters Talk discussion titled “Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Point 6 Towards Jakarta as a Global City” at the Jakarta City Hall Press Room on Wednesday.
According to him, expanding groundwater-free zones is essential given that piped water service coverage in Jakarta has now surpassed 80 per cent. He stated that high-rise buildings already receiving PAM Jaya water supply should no longer extract groundwater.
“I must enforce the law so that high-rise buildings already supplied with PAM water are not permitted to use groundwater,” he said.
Nasrudin cited several Indonesian regions experiencing land subsidence due to excessive groundwater extraction. “There are now several areas such as Semarang, Tegal, and Aceh where sinkholes have suddenly appeared, and the land has begun to subside and continues to sink. This is caused by excessive groundwater use,” he explained.
Nasrudin considers clean water provision to be an essential requirement if Jakarta is to achieve global city status. “It makes no sense for a city with global ambitions to still face basic problems regarding piped clean water availability,” he said.
The service coverage spans 12,835.21 kilometres of pipelines serving 1,178,022 customers, with water distribution reaching 22,583 litres per second.
Nasrudin added that clean water has wide-ranging impacts on people’s lives and urban development. “Our target by 2029 is to achieve 100 per cent service coverage with 16,234 kilometres of pipelines and water supply of 31,563 litres per second,” he said.