Tarum canal needs repairs

Tarum canal needs repairs

JAKARTA (JP): There are 30 fractures along the 60-kilometer
Tarum canal, which supplies untreated water for the city, but the
city administration lacks funds to repair them, an official said.

If they are not repaired soon, they will collapse and disrupt
the water supply to the city, president of the city-owned water
firm PDAM Jaya Muzahim Muchtar said.

"The repair of the canal is the central government's
responsibility. We lack the funds to help repair it," Muzahim
told reporters at City Hall.

He said one critical point in the canal, which was more than
30 years old, would require Rp 700 million (US$77,777) to repair,
meaning that Rp 21 billion would be needed to repair all the 30
fractures.

He said the canal, spanning 60 kilometers from Jatiluhur dam
in West Java to East Jakarta, supplied 80 percent of the
untreated water needed by the city.

He said the remaining 20 percent was taken from the Ciliwung
river, here, and the Cisadane river in Tangerang.

"If the supply is disrupted it would affect thousands of
customers here," Muzahim said.

The majority of the city's 500,000 customers suffered water
shortages when the Tarum canal's water dike in Bekasi, eastern
Jakarta collapsed on May 21.

It needed more than a week to repair the dike until the water
supply was back to normal.

The water supply from Jatiluhur dam is processed in the city's
three water treatment plants, in Pejompongan, Central Jakarta,
Buaran and Pulo Gadung in East Jakarta.

Muzahim said his tap water firm currently produced 2,000
liters of clean water per second.

PDAM Jaya cooperates with two foreign partners PT Thames Pam
Jaya (TPJ) and PT Pam Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja). (jun)