PDAM Jaya urged to check customers' water meters

JAKARTA (JP): A city councilor has urged PDAM Jaya, the city- owned water company, to improve its performance by checking water meters installed at customers' homes.

Checking water meters was important to help reduce the company's tap-water leakage, which, together with the poor maintenance of pipeline networks, reaches about 50 percent of its total water production at present, said Asrul Harun of Commission C for financial affairs over the weekend.

Asrul said PDAM's water leakage problem had become a classic issue.

"The tap-water leakage is not caused only by the poor condition of pipelines but also by PDAM's neglect of its duty to check water meters," he said.

Based on Gubernatorial Decree No. 2/1981, water meters must be checked or changed if they are damaged.

"No wonder PDAM loses a lot of its water production. Many Jakarta houses' water meters are broken, in that the meters run slowly even though its consumers use much more water than the number on the meter indicates," he said

The company has no reason not to check the water meters because, according to Asrul, PDAM has charged a Rp 1,000 (33 US cents) maintenance fee from customers every month over the past 16 years since the enactment of the decree.

As PDAM data shows there are 425,160 tap water consumers in Jakarta, he questioned how the fees were managed. "What have they done with the money? I know it may be not worth a lot but the public has the right to get better services from them," he said.

In many cases, PDAM officials did not even check new water meters installed in new buildings. The equipment was just sealed by them, he said.

"Sealing water meters must actually be done by an independent agency, the City Measurement Agency, which is authorized to check the meters before they are installed at consumers' houses," Asrul said, revealing that over the past 14 years, the water meter in his house has never been checked by PDAM.

He also urged people not to be afraid to ask PDAM officials to check their water meters.

Based on the council's investigation, some PDAM officials bought low-quality water meters. "They just bought them based on an economic interest, not based on quality," he said.

For instance, the second-best quality meter is labeled as first quality, he said, adding that when any water meter supplier went bankrupt, PDAM did not have sufficient spare parts to repair meters.

Asrul added that the collusion practices between consumers in commercial buildings and the firm's officials also led to water losses.

Based on 1997 PDAM data, out of the 18,035 cubic meters of water production per second, only 10,195 cubic meter per seconds reached the consumer buildings.

Asrul said that PDAM had to cut the leakage rate from 53 percent to 20 percent, the allowable limit set by the administration. (07)