PAM water leakage has reached almost 60%
JAKARTA (JP): The volume of water leaking from the distribution pipes of the city-owned water company PAM Jaya reaches 59 percent of its total water production of 1 million cubic meters per day.
Susanto Mertodiningrat, head of the drinking water and settlement health improvement training center of the Ministry of Public Works, said in Bogor, West Java, on Tuesday that the volume of water leakage in Jakarta is far higher than the average of 42 percent experienced by the other provincial water companies throughout the country.
Susanto was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying that if the volume of leakage could be reduced to 40 percent, PAM Jaya would be able to save billions of rupiah and there would be no need for the firm to raise water rates.
Speaking at the opening of a Seminar and Workshop on Drinking Water Quality Standards and Guidelines, Susanto said the water losses were caused by aging pipeline networks and pilferage.
"Besides springing leaks, the old pipe networks also affect the quality of the treated water distributed by the firm due to contamination," he said.
In a related development, Achmad Lanti, secretary of the Cipta Karya directorate general, said that the quality of drinking water in Indonesia is still below the standard set by the World Health Organization.
"The poor quality is caused mainly by the increasingly contaminated input to the water company," he said.
The water input to the treatment plants usually has to be channeled through heavily populated and industrial areas, causing a high level of the contamination.
New pipeline
Lanti said that the government is currently installing a pipe network to supply water input through Kali Malang to the PAM Jaya water processing center in Pejompongan, Central Jakarta.
The pipeline, which is being installed at a cost of Rp 1 trillion (US$476.19 million), is designed to secure an adequate supply of drinking water for Jakartans by the year 2000, he said.
In a related development, Jakarta Governor Surjadi Soedirdja issued a statement on Tuesday to the effect that the city's water projects are partly funded by financial assistance from the World Bank.
In a statement read by Tb. M. Rais, the deputy governor for economy and development, Surjadi announced to members of the City Council that the current project is also designed to reduce the use of artesian wells and to prevent the ground water level from further declining.
The governor said recently that the ground water supply in the capital is adequate to meet demand for drinking water for the next 10 years.
The city administration is striving to intensify control of the licensing of artesian wells because excessive use of the wells is feared to speed up sea water intrusion into the capital's ground water system, the governor said.
"I agree with the statement made by the United Democratic Party faction, that the usage of artesian wells must be limited through stricter permit procedures so as to avoid further degradation of land and water systems in the capital," the governor said. (yns/hhr)