Poor water supply

During March 2001 the residents of Komp Taman Surya IV in Cengkareng received a letter from water suppliers PT PAM LYONNAISE JAYA (PALYJA), dated March 12, 2001 and signed by PALYJA President Director Mr. Pierre Alla.

In his letter Mr. Alla apologized for the unstable (I would call it poor) water supply to the Cengkareng area, explaining that it was caused by private water operators destroying the supply pipe valves in order to sell water to residents.

Mr. Alla also stated that PALYJA would commence a large scale technical project to rectify this problem during March 2001 and that PALYJA had prepared many water tankers to supply houses, to ensure there was no shortage of supply.

On March 29 and March 30 my wife attempted to arrange for a tanker to come to our house to supply water. After several dozen phone calls she finally talked to a Mr. Cipto, supervisor at the supply depot. He basically told her that he would not supply water to our complex, they were too busy elsewhere and we would have to survive.

When my wife questioned this and reminded Mr. Cipto of Mr. Alla's commitment, he said: "Then talk to that French guy" (his words not mine). So we tried to do just that.

However, after a fax message and a great many telephone calls, it appears that either, Mr. Alla is too busy to worry about his customers, or his staff are too afraid to tell him about the calls.

We are now being forced to buy water from the private companies Mr. Alla blamed for causing this problem.

It seems to me that despite the price of water continuously increasing, the service remains at a poor standard. Even though PALYJA has now become a joint venture, the poor standards of customer service and responsibility still exist.

I would be grateful if Mr. Alla would contact me on 0818- 726639. I expect him to call himself, a member of his staff will just waste even more of my time.

ALAN ROBSON

Jakarta