PAM water contains bacteria

PAM water contains bacteria

JAKARTA (JP): The quality of PAM water supplied to West Jakarta area is poor, recent research reveals.

The research, by the West Jakarta Mayoralty Office of Health, found that 25 percent of the water contained bacteria, said Taufiqurrohman, the chief researcher, yesterday.

He said the research was carried out between June and September this year on 93 water tanks in West Jakarta.

The most bacteria-contaminated water was found in Pegadungan and Tegal Alur.

"There are 240 bacteria in each 100 milliliter of water," he said of those samples.

Taufiqurrohman said this indicated that the raw water processed by PAM Jaya was in poor quality, while the process itself was unhealthy.

Similar types of bacteria are also found in well water in the city, he said.

Another recent study conducted on 279 wells found that 85 percent of them were polluted with bacteria.

The report said that the bacteria-contaminated water was taken from wells which were too close to septic tanks.

Most of the well water in the southern areas of the city were highly acidic, while well water in the northern part of Jakarta contained less chloride and zinc, the report said.

Production and Technical Manager of PAM Jaya, Rama Budi, recently acknowledged the low quality of PAM Jaya's water.

He said that the low quality water was caused by the poor quality of the raw material.

"Some of the raw water is taken from the Ciliwung river, which is very dirty and contains a lot of garbage," he said. (29)